''Electrophorus voltai'' is a species of

electric eel The electric eels are a genus, ''Electrophorus'', of neotropical freshwater fish from South America in the family Gymnotidae. They are known for their ability to stun their prey by generating electricity, delivering shocks at up to 860 volt ...

found 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 sout ...

. It is the strongest known

bioelectricity In developmental biology, bioelectricity refers to the regulation of cell, tissue, and organ-level patterning and behavior as the result of endogenous electrically mediated signaling. Cells and tissues of all types use ion fluxes to communicate e ...

generator in nature.

Taxonomy

It was previously classified within ''

Electrophorus electricus ''Electrophorus electricus'' is the best-known species of electric eel. It is a South American electric fish. Until the discovery of two additional species in 2019, the genus was classified as the monotypic, with this species the only one in the ...

'' when that species was considered the only one in the genus ''

Electrophorus In electromagnetism, an electrophorus or electrophore is a simple, manual, capacitive, electrostatic generator used to produce charge via the process of electrostatic induction. A first version of it was invented in 1762 by Swedish professor Jo ...

'', but a 2019 analysis described it and '' E. varii'' as distinct species based on both their deep genetic divergences and differences in the

voltage Voltage, also known as electric pressure, electric tension, or (electric) potential difference, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a static electric field, it corresponds to the work needed per unit of charge to ...

produced by each species. It is thought to have diverged from its sister species ''E. electricus'' during the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Alessandro Volta, who is widely credited as the creator of the electric battery.

Distribution

It inhabits upland habitats, primarily north-flowing rivers of the Brazilian Shield, but also some south-flowing rivers of the

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...

. In some streams of the Guiana Shield, it is sympatric with ''E. varii''.

Description

It closely resembles ''E. electricus'' but differs in skull morphology, including having a depressed skull and a wide head. It has a maximum voltage of 860 volts, making it not only the strongest bioelectricity generator of the three electric eel species, but also of any animal. Males get larger then females by about 35 cm (14 in)

Behavior

A 2021 study reported the first known occurrence of pack hunting by electric eels in a population of ''E. voltai'' at the mouth of the

Iriri River The Iriri River ( pt, Rio Iriri, ; Mẽbêngôkre: ''Kororoti'', ) is a large tributary of the Xingu River in Brazil, in the state of Pará. It is long making it the 116th longest river in the world (with Krishna River, India) and the 15th long ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q67284909 Gymnotidae Electrophoridae Strongly electric fish Freshwater fish of Brazil Fish of French Guiana Freshwater fish of Venezuela Fish of Guyana Fish of Suriname Taxa named by Carlos David Canabarro Machado de Santana Taxa named by William Gareth Richard Crampton Taxa named by Wolmar B. Wosiacki Taxa named by Mark Henry Sabaj Pérez Taxa named by Casey B. Dillman Taxa named by Natália Castro e Castro Taxa named by Douglas A. Bastos Taxa named by Richard Peter Vari Fish described in 2019 Alessandro Volta