Description

Dorsal spines (total): 2; Dorsal soft rays (total): 7; Anal spines: 1; Anal soft rays: 5. Hisonotus megaloplax differs from its congeners by the arrangement of abdominal plates, which is composed by greatly enlarged lateral abdominal plates, which contact each other at the belly midline, without a median abdominal series or with a single triangular plate located posteriorly. All other species of Hisonotus, with the exception of Hisonotus montanus, possess a complete median series between the lateral abdominal plates or a naked area between them. This feature is polymorphic in H. montanus, some individuals having enlarged lateral abdominal plates contacting at the midline and leading to misidentification. Hisonotus megaloplax is further distinguished from Hisonotus montanus by the caudal-fin color pattern which is almost completely dark vs. color pattern composed by vertical dark stripes, and by the infraorbital canal entering infraorbital series via sphenotic vs. infraorbital canal entering infraorbital series via compound pterotic (Ref. 80996).

Common Names

No common names available.

Taxonomic Hierarchy

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Teleostei

Order: Siluriformes

Family: Loricariidae

Genus: Hisonotus

Species: Hisonotus megaloplax Carvalho & Reis, 2009

Climate Zone

Location

Biology

Facultative air-breathing in the genus (Ref. 126274)

Habitat

benthopelagic