''Isorineloricaria villarsi'' is a

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), ...

catfish Catfish (or catfishes; order (biology), order Siluriformes or Nematognathi) are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Catfish are common name, named for their prominent barbel (anatomy), barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, though not ...

in the family

Loricariidae Loricariidae is the largest family (biology), family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with over 90 genus, genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South A ...

. Some sources, notably

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

, recognize this species as ''Squaliforma villarsi''. It is native to

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 ...

, where it is known only from the

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

basin in northwestern Venezuela and extreme eastern Colombia.

Taxonomy

''Isorineloricaria villarsi'' was originally described as a member of ''Plecostomus'' by

Christian Frederik Lütken Christian Frederik Lütken (; 7 October 1827, in Sorø – 6 February 1901), was a Danish zoologist and naturalist. In 1852, he resigned his commission as a lieutenant with the Danish army, and earned his master's degree in sciences the followi ...

in 1874, although it was subsequently transferred to ''

Hypostomus ''Hypostomus'' is a genus of catfish in the family Loricariidae. They are native to tropical and subtropical South America. '' H. plecostomus'' is the popular freshwater aquarium fish formerly known as ''Plecostomus plecostomus''. The taxonomic s ...

'' after ''Plecostomus'' was found to be an invalid genus. It was later classified within the now-invalid genus ''Squaliforma'', until a 2016 taxonomic review of the genera ''

Aphanotorulus ''Aphanotorulus'' is a genus of armored catfishes native to the Amazon, Orinoco, Essequibo and Jaguaribe basins in South America.Ray, C.K. & Armbruster, J.W. (2016): The genera ''Isorineloricaria'' and ''Aphanotorulus'' (Siluriformes: Loricarii ...

'' and '' Isorineloricaria'' conducted by Jonathan W. Armbruster and C. Keith Ray found it to be a member of ''Isorineloricaria''.

Description

The species reaches 32 cm (12.6 inches) in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

and,as its congeners, is believed to be a facultative air-breather.

References

Hypostominae Catfish of South America Freshwater fish of Colombia Freshwater fish of Venezuela Fish described in 1874 Taxa named by Christian Frederik Lütken {{Hypostominae-stub