Brown ghost electric fishes of the A pteronotus leptorhynchus species‐group ( O stariophysi, G ymnotiformes); monophyly, major clades, and revision

Neotropical brown ghost electric knifefishes of the A pteronotus leptorhynchus species‐group are reviewed. A series of synapomorphies delimit the species‐group and the two major subunits that comprise that clade. The phylogeny is concordant with the hypothesis of a primary division within the clade resultant from A ndean uplift events 8 Mya and with the existence of ancestral components of the species‐group 12 Mya. Species of the species‐group are characterized by morphological stasis across that time frame. A pteronotus leptorhynchus , previously considered to be a widely distributed and morphologically variable species, was found to encompass five species. The description of the four new species is supplemented by the redescription of the five previously recognized forms within the species‐group. Members of this clade are broadly distributed through the E ssequibo R iver and R ío O rinoco of the A tlantic slope of S outh A merica, the R íos A roa, A trato, C auca, M agdalena, and Y aracuy, and the rivers of the L ago M aracaibo basin of the C aribbean slope and drainages in northern C olombia and P anama along the P acific versant. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London