Pareiodon
Monotypic genus of fish
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pareiodon is a monospecific genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Trichomycteridae, the pencil and parasitic catfishes, and the subfamily Stegophilinae, the parasitic catfishes.[2] The only species in the genus is Pareiodon microps.[4] This catfish occurs in the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Colombia and Peru.[1][5]
| Pareiodon | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Siluriformes |
| Family: | Trichomycteridae |
| Subfamily: | Stegophilinae |
| Genus: | Pareiodon Kner, 1855[2] |
| Species: | P. microps |
| Binomial name | |
| Pareiodon microps Kner, 1855[2] | |
| Synonyms[2][3] | |
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Of Pareiodon
Of Pareiodon microps
| |
Like its stegophiline relatives, they possess a sucking, disk-like mouth, along with inter- and opercular spines which facilitates adhesion to its food items, though this species is a scavenger, unlike its ectoparasitic relatives. During feeding events involving vertebrate carcasses, P. microps may be associated with other species of scavengers; the whale candirus, Cetopsis candiru and Ce. coecutiens, are not closely related to P. microps despite also being considered "candiru"; the vulture catfish Calophysus macropterus is a much larger scavenger that may also join the candirus at the carcass.[6]