''Utiaritichthys'' is a genus of

serrasalmid The Serrasalmidae (serrasalmids) are a family of characiform fishes, recently elevated to family status. It includes more than 90 species. The name means "serrated salmon family", which refers to the serrated keel running along the belly of these ...

fish found in 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 technolog ...

and Orinoco basins in tropical

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 ...

. The adults are typically found in rapidly flowing water where they feed on aquatic plants in the family

Podostemaceae Podostemaceae (riverweed family), a family in the order Malpighiales, comprise about 50 genera and species of more or less thalloid aquatic herbs. Distribution and habitat They are found mostly in tropical and subtropical areas worldwide. Ma ...

and filamentous algae.Pereira, T.N.A. & Castro, R.M.C. (2014)
A new species of Utiaritichthys Miranda Ribeiro (Characiformes: Serrasalmidae) from the Serra dos Parecis, Tapajós drainage.
''Neotropical Ichthyology, 12 (2): 397-402''. They reach up to in standard length. The

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

and taxonomic position of the genus is not fully resolved. The only clear difference from ''

Myloplus ''Myloplus'' is a genus of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae found in tropical and subtropical South America, where they inhabit rivers and streams (both slow and fast-flowing). They are primarily herbivores, but also take some animal ...

'' is the comparatively longer body of ''Utiaritichthys''.

Species

There are currently 3 recognized species in this genus: * '' Utiaritichthys esguiceroi'' Pereira & R. M. C. Castro, 2014 * '' Utiaritichthys longidorsalis'' Jégu, Tito de Morais & dos Santos, 1992 * '' Utiaritichthys sennaebragai'' A. Miranda-Ribeiro, 1937

References

Serrasalmidae Freshwater fish of Brazil Fish of French Guiana Fish of the Amazon basin {{Characiformes-stub