''Pterolebias'' is a
genus of
killifish from the
family Rivulidae which are native to temporary swamps and ponds in South America. It includes two groups, which sometimes are regarded as separate genera: ''Pterolebias'' (''
sensu stricto
''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular co ...
'') from the southern
Amazon and
Paraguay (including the
Pantanal) river basins, and ''Gnatholebias'' from the
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 ...
(including the
Llanos
The Llanos (Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropical grasslands, sav ...
) river basin.
Depending on the exact species, these annual
killifish reach up to in
total length.
Species
There are four recognized species in ''Pterolebias'' according to
FishBase
FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web. ,
[ but two of these are sometimes placed in a separate genus, ''Gnatholebias''. The two groups are relatively distantly related and if kept in a single genus ''Pterolebias'' is ]paraphyletic
In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...
.Pterolebias phasianus
''Pterolebias'' is a genus of killifish from the Family (biology), family Rivulidae which are native to temporary swamps and ponds in South America. It includes two groups, which sometimes are regarded as separate genera: ''Pterolebias'' (''sensu ...
'' W. J. E. M. Costa, 1988
* ''Gnatholebias''
** ''Pterolebias hoignei
''Pterolebias'' is a genus of killifish from the family Rivulidae which are native to temporary swamps and ponds in South America. It includes two groups, which sometimes are regarded as separate genera: ''Pterolebias'' (''sensu stricto'') fr ...
'' Thomerson, 1974
** ''Pterolebias zonatus
''Pterolebias zonatus'' is a species of fish in the family Aplocheilidae endemic to the Orinoco River basin in Venezuela where it is found in open waters exposed to sunlight. This species grows to a length of . It is found in the aquarium tr ...
'' G. S. Myers, 1935
References
Rivulidae
Freshwater fish genera
Taxa named by Samuel Garman
{{Cyprinodontiformes-stub