Hypomasticus mormyrops
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| Hypomasticus mormyrops | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Characiformes |
| Family: | Anostomidae |
| Genus: | Hypomasticus |
| Species: | H. mormyrops |
| Binomial name | |
| Hypomasticus mormyrops (Steindachner, 1875) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
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Hypomasticus mormyrops is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Anostomidae, the toothed headstanders. This fish is endemic to southeastern Brazil.
Hypomasticus mormyrops was first formally described as Leporinus mormyrops in 1875 by the Austrian ichthyologist Franz Steindachner, with its type locality given as the Río Parahyba and the Río Piabanha in Brazil.[2] In 1929, the Russian-American ichthyologist Nikolai Andreyevich Borodin proposed the new genus Hypomasticus for some species previously classified in Leporinus, and designated L. mormyrops as its type species. The genus Hypomasticus is classified within the subfamily Leporininae of the toothed headstander family, Anostomidae.[3] Anostomidae is classified in the suborder Characoidei of the order Characiformes, the characins and related fishes.[4]
Etymology
Hypomasticus mormyrops is the type species of the genus Hypomasticus, a name which prefixes hypo-, meaning "under", with masticus, which is derived from the Greek mastax, meaning "that with which one chews" or, in other words, the mouth. This is an allusion to the mouth of this species being under the snout, or inferior. The specific name, mormyrops, means similar to the African freshwater elephantfish genus Mormyrus, a reference to these tawo taxa having similar fleshy snouts.[5]