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Aspredo

Aspredo aspredo (Linnaeus, 1758)

John P. Friel
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Containing group: Aspredinidae

Introduction

Members of the genus are the largest aspredinids. They occur from the Orinoco delta, through the Guianas, to the Amazon. Aspredo appears to enter further into freshwater rivers than other Aspredini.

Characteristics

Diagnosis

A genus of large banjo-catfish (up to 385 mm SL) distinguished from all other aspredinids by the following: humeral processes expanded often contacting posterior coracoid processes in large specimens. Other characters not unique to this genus but useful for identification include the following: maxillary barbel adnate with head; one pair of accessory barbels present; body pigmentation uniform without any pattern of dark saddles; and unculiferous tubercle rows highly reduced.

Other Names for Aspredo aspredo (Linnaeus, 1758)

References

Friel, J. 1994. A phylogenetic study of the Neotropical banjo catfishes (Teleostei: Siluriformes: Aspredinidae) Ph.D. thesis, Duke University, Durham, NC, 256 pp.

Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae (10 ed.), Stockholm, 1: 1-824.

Mees, G. F. 1987. The members of the subfamily Aspredininae, family Aspredinidae in Suriname (Pisces, Nematognathi). Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, 90(2): 173-192.

Scopoli, I. A. 1777. Introductio ad historiam sistens genera lapidum, plantarum et animalium.

Title Illustrations
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Scientific Name Aspredo aspredo
Image Use creative commons This media file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License - Version 3.0.
Copyright © 1995 John P. Friel
About This Page

John P. Friel
Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, Ithaca, New York, USA

Page: Tree of Life Aspredo. Aspredo aspredo (Linnaeus, 1758). Authored by John P. Friel. The TEXT of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License - Version 3.0. Note that images and other media featured on this page are each governed by their own license, and they may or may not be available for reuse. Click on an image or a media link to access the media data window, which provides the relevant licensing information. For the general terms and conditions of ToL material reuse and redistribution, please see the Tree of Life Copyright Policies.

Citing this page:

Friel, John P. 2000. Aspredo. Aspredo aspredo (Linnaeus, 1758). Version 14 April 2000 (under construction). http://tolweb.org/Aspredo_aspredo/15266/2000.04.14 in The Tree of Life Web Project, http://tolweb.org/

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