Papiliolebias ashleyae Nielsen & Brousseau, 2014
Papiliolebias ashleyae
photo by Vermeulen, F.

Family:  Rivulidae (Rivulines), subfamily: Rivulinae
Max. size:  3.6 cm SL (male/unsexed); 2.9 cm SL (female)
Environment:  benthopelagic; freshwater; pH range: 6.91
Distribution:  South America: Rio Mamoré basin, Rio Madeira drainage in Bolivia.
Diagnosis:  Dorsal soft rays (total): 10-12; Anal soft rays: 15-18; Vertebrae: 25-28. Papiliolebias ashleyae is distinguished from all other congeners by the following characters: lower prepelvic length in males 43.6-44.7% SL (vs. 44.9- 51.5% SL); lower pre-pelvic length in females 43.3-46.8% SL (vs. 48.2-51.7% SL); and color pattern of males consisting of an overall redbrownish coloration, including the dorsal, caudal and pelvic fins basis (vs. overall color pattern dark blue, but never red-brown). Additional characters useful to distinguished from other species include a reddishbrown stripe on the basis of the dorsal and anal fins, with whitish blotches, and distal portion of anal- and caudal-fins bluish (vs. absence of reddish- brown stripe in the remaining species of the genus, where the caudal and anal-fin basis possess white and black spots); dorsal-fin origin at vertical through base of anal-fin rays 9th-10th (vs. 7th-8th in P. bitteri and 6th-9th in P. hatinne); body with brownish-red background and iridescent greenishblue scales, forming slender, oblique, ladder-like stripes (vs. oblique thick lines arranged parallel to each other); pelvic-fin red, with three spots (from basal to distal portion of fin): white, dark red and white (vs. dark blue without spots); third pelvic fin-rays transformed into a filament (vs. third pelvic-fin ray not transformed into a filament), and pelvic-fin separated by a small 4 mm interspace (vs. not separated) (Ref. 94790).
Biology:  Inhabits temporary pool with about 250 meters length and 20 meters width. Collected at the center of the pool, with water depth of 120 cm. Water temperature at the surface of the pool was 34.5°C while at the marginal area of the pool, at depth of 20 cm, was 31° C. Syntopic with exclusively annual rivulid fishes such as females of an unidentified Neofundulus species, Spectrolebias brousseaui and an undescribed Trigonectes species. Other animals found at the temporary pool include Phylomedusa sp. tadpoles, clams and freshwaters crabs. The pool has abundant and dense aquatic vegetation, with unidentified species belonging to the genera Echinodorus, Utricularia and Nymphaea. The eggs are small measuring about 0.90 mm in diameter and have long filaments at the surface of the chorium (Ref. 94790).
IUCN Red List Status: Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless


Source and more info: www.fishbase.org. For personal, classroom, and other internal use only. Not for publication.