''Bryconops alburnoides'' is a small freshwater fish, approximately 6 inches long at its largest, that lives in the rivers of South America. It has a slender body, with a yellowish dorsal fin and yellow-tinged back scales that fade into silver on its belly. It is largely an insectivore that picks land-dwelling insects from the riverbanks, though it eats much more whenever rain washes prey into the water.

Description

''Bryconops alburnoides'' reaches 15 cm (5.9 inches) at a maximum in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

(tail fin not included), with a generally elongated body.Machado-Allison, Antonio & Buckup, Paulo & Chernoff, Barry & Royero, Ramiro. (1993).
Las especies del genero Bryconops Kner, 1858 en Venezuela (Teleostei, Characiformes)
'. 14. 1-20. The genus ''

Bryconops ''Bryconops'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the family Iguanodectidae from South America. It consists of small fish, all under half-a-foot long, with slender bodies and silvery scales, though there is some mild color variation. Several specie ...

'' as a whole has been described as slender-bodied and "smelt-like", similar to sister genus ''

Piabucus ''Piabucus'' is a genus of freshwater tetras in the family Iguanodectidae. All three species are found in South America, largely the Amazon and its major tributaries. None of them are longer than half a foot long, with the largest reaching a max ...

'';"THE FISH FAMILIES". Field Guide to the Fishes of the Amazon, Orinoco, and Guianas, edited by Peter van der Sleen and James S. Albert, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 95-96. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400888801-009 ''B. alburnoides'' is no exception. ''B. alburnoides'' is one of the larger members of the genus by a considerable margin. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

has 50 to 62 scales. ''B. alburnoides'' has a yellowish dorsal fin, which is a feature that can be used to distinguish it from other members of the genus that look similar. The upper and lower margins of the caudal fin are also tinted yellow. A congener, ''

Bryconops gracilis ''Bryconops gracilis'' is a small species of freshwater fish from the rivers of South America. It is one of multiple species for which the common name "lambari" is used. Though not well-studied, it has been re-described in recent years in order ...

'', has frequently been misidentified as ''B. alburnoides'', thanks to a yellowish dorsal fin and a similar number of lateral-line scales. However, ''B. alburnoides'' has three rows of

premaxilla The premaxilla (or praemaxilla) is one of a pair of small cranial bones at the very tip of the upper jaw of many animals, usually, but not always, bearing teeth. In humans, they are fused with the maxilla. The "premaxilla" of therian mammal has b ...

ry teeth, while ''B. gracilis'' only has two, making for a definitive way to tell the two apart.

Taxonomy

Upon describing ''Bryconops alburnoides'' in 1858, Austrian ichthyologist

Rudolf Kner Rudolf Ignaz Kner (24 August 1810 – 27 October 1869) was an Austrian geologist, paleontologist, zoologist and ichthyologist. He also wrote some poems which were published by his brother-in-law K.A. Kaltenbrunner. Biography Kner was bo ...

established ''Bryconops'' as a new genus.Kner, Rudolf. (1858)
Beiträge zur Familie der Characinen
''Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe'', ''30'', 75–80. Ανακτήθηκε από https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/233420 He also described a congener, ''B. lucidus'', but this has since been synonymized with ''B. alburnoides''. As a result, ''B. alburnoides'' is the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

of the genus. ''Bryconops lucidus'' is the only synonym of ''Bryconops alburnoides''. When originally described, the genus ''Bryconops'' was placed in the family

Characidae Characidae, the characids or characins is a family of freshwater subtropical and tropical fish, belonging to the order Characiformes. The name "characins" is the historical one, but scientists today tend to prefer "characids" to reflect their st ...

. Research from Oliveira et al. prompted ''Bryconops'', along with sister genera ''

'' and ''

Iguanodectes ''Iguanodectes'' is a genus of freshwater fish found in tropical South America, with eight currently described species. They are all small tetras, none longer than 5 inches, and often have attractive silvery or striped scales, which makes them a t ...

'', to be moved to the family

Iguanodectidae Iguanodectidae is a family of freshwater fish in the order Characiformes that lives in South America. It is home to the subfamily Iguanodectinae (Eigenmann, 1909) and the monotypic ''Bryconops'' clade. Several species in the family, such as the ...

in 2011, which was revived from the work of ichthyologist

Carl H. Eigenmann Carl Henry Eigenmann (March 9, 1863 – April 24, 1927) was a German-American ichthyologist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who, along with his wife Rosa Smith Eigenmann, and his zoology students is credited with identifyin ...

.Oliveira, C., Avelino, G.S., Abe, K.T., Mariguela, T.C., Benine, R.C., Orti, G., Vari, R.P., & Correa e Castro, R.M. (2011)
Phylogenetic relationships within the speciose family Characidae (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) based on multilocus analysis and extensive ingroup sampling.
� ''BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11: 275. doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-11-275'' Therefore, ''B. alburnoides'' is a

characiform Characiformes is an order of ray-finned fish, comprising the characins and their allies. Grouped in 18 recognized families, more than 2000 different species are described, including the well-known piranha and tetras.; Buckup P.A.: "Relationshi ...

fish of the family Iguanodectidae. ''Bryconops'' has long known to be related to ''

Brycon ''Brycon'' is a genus of fish in the family Characidae found in freshwater habitats in Central and South America, ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina. Despite not being closely related to true trout, they are sometimes called South ...

'', '' Tetragonopterus'', and ''

Chalceus ''Chalceus'' is a genus of fish that inhabits freshwater habitats in South America. Members can be found in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, as well as in the Guianas and various tributaries of the former. It is the sole representative of the fam ...

'', which are its most closely-related characiform genera. Within the genus ''Bryconops'', ''B. alburnoides'' is isolated from the subgenus ''Creatochanes'' and from the ''

Bryconops caudomaculatus The tailspot tetra (''Bryconops caudomaculatus'') is a freshwater fish that lives in the coastal river regions of upper South America. Both its common and scientific names reference the distinct spot of color present on the tail fin, which is one ...

species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

; it is not considered a member of ''Creatochanes'', and there are six members of the subgenus ''Bryconops'', five of which are part of the aforementioned complex. ''B. alburnoides'' is the sole remainder.

Etymology

Many members of the genus ''Bryconops'' draw comparisons to other taxa, but ''B. alburnoides'' in particular bears a resemblance to members of the

cyprinid Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest verte ...

genus ''

Alburnus ''Alburnus'' is a genus of fish in the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows. They are known commonly as bleaks. A group of species in the genus is known as shemayas. The genus occurs in the western Palearctic realm, and the center of diversi ...

''. This, in fact, is the origin of its specific epithet; the suffix "–oides" means "with the form of" or "resembling", hence ''alburnoides''. The genus name ''Bryconops'' in itself is a reference to another taxon - ''

'' is a genus of characins that also lives in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. Therefore, ''B. alburnoides''' full scientific name means "resembling ''Brycon'' and ''Alburnus''". The name ''Brycon'' originates in Greek, and comes from the word "bryko", which means "to bite" or "to eat". This is in reference to the notable set of teeth that all members of the genus are equipped with. The name ''alburnoides'' is also used for the genus ''

Alburnoides ''Alburnoides'' is a genus of cyprinid fishes native to Europe and Asia. Many species are known as riffle minnows or spirlins. Species There are currently 30 recognized species in this genus: * '' Alburnoides bipunctatus'' ( Bloch, 1782) * '' Al ...

'', consisting of cyprinid fishes that inhabit Europe and Asia. Outside of similar nomenclature, ''Alburnoides'' is entirely unrelated to ''B. alburnoides''.

Habitat and ecology

Like the rest of the genus ''Bryconops'', ''B. alburnoides'' is found solely in

n freshwater habitats. It is local to the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

and

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

river basins, as well as

flood-plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...

lakes in the lower Orinoco region. ''Bryconops alburnoides'' is an

insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...

, demonstrating a marked preference for terrestrial

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s. Its consumption increases opportunistically with windy and rainy weather, which sweeps more prey into its aquatic habitat.Silva, Cylene & Ferreira, Efrem & de Deus, Cláudia. (2008)
Diet of Bryconops alburnoides and B-caudomaculatus (Osteichthyes : Characiformes) in the region affected by Balbina Hydroelectric Dam (Amazon drainage, Brazil)
Neotropical Ichthyology. 6. 237-242. 10.1590/S1679-62252008000200011. This is in line with other members of the genus, all of which have a diet that consists at least partially of insects.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q6417102 Characiformes Fish described in 1858