Trichomycteridae is a family of catfishes commonly known as pencil catfishes or parasitic catfishes. This family includes the candiru fish (''Vandellia cirrhosa''), feared by some people for its alleged habit of entering into the urethra of humans. They are one of the few parasitic chordates. Another species is the life monsefuano (''Trichomycterus punctulatus'') which was important to the

Moche culture The Moche civilization (; alternatively, the Moche culture or the Early, Pre- or Proto-Chimú culture, Chimú) flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru from about 100 to 800 AD during the Cultural peri ...

and still an important part of Peruvian cuisine.Fondazioneslowfood
Life monsefuano.
Retrieved 28 April 2017. This family is prohibited from being imported into various parts of the United States.

Taxonomy

The Trichomycteridae comprise about 42 genera and 286

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

described. It is the second-most diverse family of the superfamily Loricarioidea. Numerous species still remain undescribed, such as the human-biting candiru. The monophyly of Trichomycteridae is well-supported. The family is divided into eight subfamilies. The only subfamily that is not

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

is the largest one, Trichomycterinae. A large

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

within Trichomycteridae is also suggested that includes the subfamilies Tridentinae, Stegophilinae, Vandelliinae, Sarcoglanidinae and Glanapteryginae (the so-called TSVSG clade); this large clade in turn forms a larger monophyletic group with the two genera '' Ituglanis'' and '' Scleronema''. The latter two genera are not classified in any of the subfamilies. The basal subfamilies Copionodontinae and Trichogeninae are

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to ref ...

groups to each other, and together they form a clade that is sister to the rest of the Trichomycteridae. Subfamilies and genera include:

Distribution

Trichomycteridae has the greatest distribution of any catfish family. It is widely distributed throughout the Neotropics. These fish originate from freshwater in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

, and throughout

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. The family extends from Panama southward to

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Description

The bodies of these fish are normally naked and elongated. The chin barbels are usually absent, nasal barbels are usually present, and there are usually two pairs of maxillary barbels. Most of these fish have no adipose fin, and some also lack pelvic fins. Many trichomycterids are small enough to be considered "miniaturized" (do not exceed SL). Miniaturization occurs in many of the trichomycterid subfamilies, including Trichomycterinae, Glanapteryginae, Vandelliinae (in ''Paravandellia''), Tridentinae, and Sarcoglanidinae. Miniaturization has probably occurred four times in trichomycterid evolution, as the Glanapteryginae and Sarcoglanidinae are closely related and may have a single miniaturized ancestor.

Ecology

Though the family is commonly known as "parasitic catfishes", Trichomycteridae may actually include the widest range of trophic adaptations within any single catfish family. Only the two subfamilies Vandelliinae and Stegophilinae and Tridensimilis of Tridentinae are considered to be parasitic fishes, including the infamous '' candirú'' or vampire catfish, feared by some people for its habit of entering into the urethra of humans. Apart from the free-living, generalized predators of small invertebrates, trophic modes represented by trichomycterids include the

hematophagy Hematophagy (sometimes spelled haematophagy or hematophagia) is the practice by certain animals of feeding on blood (from the Greek words αἷμα ' "blood" and φαγεῖν ' "to eat"). Since blood is a fluid tissue rich in nutritious ...

(feeding on blood) in Vandelliinae, the lepidophagy (scales) and mucophagy (mucus) in some Stegophilinae and necrophagy (carrion) in others, and partial algivory (algae) in Copiondontinae. Trichomycteridae include species that are active swimmers (Copionodontinae and Trichogeninae), torrent dwellers (Trichomycterinae), litter leaf dwellers (''Ituglanis''), and sand dwellers (Glanapteryginae and Sarcoglanidinae). Species may be restricted to elevations above 4000 m (13000 ft) in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

, Andean lakes, off-shore coastal islands, lowland species known only from large rapids, leaflitter puddles, and the bottom of torrential rivers. Trichomycterids are one of the most successful groups to occupy cave habitats; it contains 12 hypogean species. Such species include ''Ituglanis bambui'', ''I. epikarsticus'', ''I. passensis'', ''I. ramiroi'', and ''Silvinichthys bortayro''. Six of the hypogean species are of the genus '' Trichomycterus'': ''Trichomycterus chaberti'', ''T. itacarambiensis'', ''T. santanderensis'', ''T. spelaeus'', and ''T. uisae''.

References

{{Authority control Catfish families Catfish of South America Taxa named by Pieter Bleeker