Paralichthys brasiliensis (Ranzani, 1840)

Soricetti, Mariano, Morawicki, Santiago, Guardiola Rivas, Fredy José, Guidi, Catalina, Quezada, Facundo, Almirón, Adriana Edith & Solimano, Patricio José, 2020, Ichthyofauna of the lower course of the Negro river drainage, Patagonia Argentina, Check List 16 (4), pp. 895-905 : 902

Paralichthys brasiliensis (Ranzani, 1840)

Figure 3K

Material examined. ARGENTINA • 1 ♂, 385 mm; Site 7; 41°01ʹ12ʺS, 062°47ʹ54ʺW; 26 Feb. 2017. S. Morawicki, P. Solimano leg.; MPCN-Ict 11 . • 1 ♀, 235 mm; Site 2; 40°42ʹ48ʺS, 063°23ʹ08ʺW; 4 Oct. 2017; M. Soricetti, S. Morawicki leg; MPCN- Ict 75 . • 1 ♂, 406 mm; Site 7; 41°01ʹ12ʺS, 062°47ʹ54ʺW; 26 Feb. 2017. S. Morawicki, P. Solimano leg.; MPCN-Ict 76 .

Identification. Body compressed. Cycloid scales on both sides of the body; 3–6 upper gill rakers and lower 13–18 in first branchial arch; 68–82 rays in dorsal fin; 50–61 rays in anal fin; 9–12 pectoral fin rays; 90–107 perforated scales on lateral line and 61–71 oblique rows of scales; small eyes (2.2–6% SL) separated by flat, wide interorbital region (interorbital width 1.9–5% SL); short pectoral fins (pectoral fin on the ocular side 8.7–15.3% SL); and narrow caudal peduncle (10.2–14.0% SL).

Note. Paralichthys orbignyanus has been frequently confused with P. brasiliensis , the other species of the genus occurring in the South Atlantic. Paralichthys orbignyanus is distinguished from P. brasiliensis by the number of gill rakers in the first branchial arch (16–24 vs. 12–15, respectively), the number of scales on the lat- eral line (90–107 vs. 81–88, respectively) and the oblique rows of scales (61–71 vs. 49–54, respectively), the shorter pectoral fins (average 11.5% vs. 13.1% SL, respectively), the interorbital width (average 3.5% vs. 2.7% SL, respec- tively) and the caudal peduncle width (average 11.6% vs.14.3% of the SL, respectively).