''Microsternarchus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

bluntnose knifefish The Hypopomidae are a family of fishes in the order Gymnotiformes known as the bluntnose knifefish. They may also be called grass or leaf knifefishes. These electric fish are not often eaten, of little commercial importance, rarely kept as aquar ...

that is found in creeks and streams, often in areas with submerged vegetation, roots and leaf litter, in the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

Orinoco The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wo ...

Essequibo Essequibo is the largest traditional region of Guyana but not an administrative region of Guyana today. It may also refer to: * Essequibo River, the largest river in Guyana * Essequibo (colony), a former Dutch colony in what is now Guyana; * Esseq ...

–

Rupununi The Rupununi is a region in the south-west of Guyana, bordering the Brazilian Amazon. The Rupununi river, also known by the local indigenous peoples as ''Raponani'', flows through the Rupununi region. The name Rupununi originates from the word '' ...

and

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and f ...

basins in South America.Cox Fernandes, C., Nogueira, A., Williston, A. & Alves-Gomes, J.A. (2015): A new species of electric knifefish from the rio Negro, Amazon basin (Gymnotiformes: Hypopomidae, Microsternarchini). ''Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 164 (1): 213-227.'' The two recognized species are both small knifefish, with the largest being ''M. bilineatus'' at up to in total length. The other is ''M. brevis'', which at up to only is the world's smallest knifefish. ''Microsternarchus'' are very similar to ''

Brachyhypopomus ''Brachyhypopomus'' is a genus of fish in the family Hypopomidae (bluntnose knifefish) native primarily to tropical and subtropical South America (south to the Río de la Plata Basin), although a single species, ''B. occidentalis'', also occurs ...

''.

Species

There are currently 2 recognized species in this genus: * '' Microsternarchus bilineatus'' Fernández-Yépez, 1968 * '' Microsternarchus brevis'' Cox Fernandes, A. Nogueira, A. D. Williston & Alves-Gomes, 2015

References

Hypopomidae Taxa named by Augustín Fernández-Yépez Fish of South America Fish of Brazil Freshwater fish genera {{Gymnotiformes-stub