Sternarchella patriciae Evans, Crampton & Albert, 2017

Family:  Apteronotidae (Ghost knifefishes), subfamily: Apteronotinae
Max. size:  20.8 cm TL (male/unsexed)
Environment:  benthopelagic; freshwater
Distribution:  South America: Peru.
Diagnosis:  This species is distinguished from all its congeners by the following characters: with two rows of bones visible externally in caudal peduncle (vs. one row in duccis, orinoco, orthos, raptor, sima, schotti) (shared with calhamazon, rex); continuous membrane of tissue connecting the anal-fin base and caudal peduncle (vs. no membrane in duccis, orinoco, orthos, raptor, sima, schotti) (shared with calhamazon, rex); presence of a long body-cavity, 14-15 pre-caudal vertebrae (vs. 12-14 in calhamazon and 16 duccis, orinoco, rex, sima, schotti) (shared with orthos, raptor); possess a ridge or crown of thorny projections at border of parietal and supraoccipital and epioccipital ridges (vs. absent in calhamazon, duccis, orinoco, raptor, rex, schotti, sima); with a ridge on the posterior dorsal surface of the basihyal (vs. ridge absent in calhamazon) (shared with duccis, orinoco, orthos, sima, schotti, rex, raptor) (Ref. 126780).
Biology:  Collected by trawling the river bottom where individuals inhabit deep river channels (10-20 m) during the day and move to shallower water at night to feed near the river margin and over flooded beaches. Stomach content indicates that these fishes feed primarily on larger-bodied (non-planktonic) aquatic insect larvae (e.g. Odonata and Ephemeroptera) and some juvenile fishes (Ref. 126780).
IUCN Red List Status: Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless


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