''Nannostomus limatus'', (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: ''nanos'' = small, and the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''stomus'' = relating to the mouth; from the

: ''limatus'' = elegant), commonly known as the elegant pencilfish, is a freshwater

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

belonging to the

characin 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 ...

family

Lebiasinidae The pencil fishes are a family (Lebiasinidae) of freshwater fishes found in Costa Rica, Panama, and South America. They are usually small and are known as ornamental fishes in aquaria, including popular fishes such as the various pencil fish a ...

. They were first described in 1978 by Stanley H. Weitzman along with two other new species (''

Nannostomus britskii ''Nannostomus britskii'', (from the Greek: ''nanos'' = small, and the Latin ''stomus'' = relating to the mouth; ''britskii'' = in honor of ichthyologist, Heraldo A. Britski),commonly known as the spotstripe pencilfish, is a freshwater species of ...

'' and '' Nannostomus nitidus''), from a collection of specimens preserved in the

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

museum. Only rarely imported and kept by aquarists, they have been recorded from the Amazonian region of Brazil, specifically near Santarém.

References

Lebiasinidae Taxa named by Stanley Howard Weitzman Fish described in 1978 Fish of South America Fish of the Amazon basin {{characiformes-stub