''Mucurilebias leitaoi'' is a species of rivulid

killifish A killifish is any of various oviparous (egg-laying) cyprinodontiform fish (including families Aplocheilidae, Cyprinodontidae, Fundulidae, Profundulidae and Valenciidae). All together, there are 1,270 species of killifish, the biggest famil ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

where it occurs, or formerly occurred, in the basin of the Mucuri River. This

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

can reach a length of TL. This species has not been seen since the original series of types was collected in 1988 and it may have become extinct due to the extensive

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

in the region. This species is the only known member of its genus, but it was formerly included in ''

Leptolebias ''Leptolebias'' is a ray-finned fish genus of the killifish family Rivulidae. Like many of their relatives, they are rather ambiguously known as " pearlfish". They are endemic to the coastal areas of Brazil, where they inhabit ephemeral pools in ...

''.Costa, W.J.E.M. (2014)
A new genus of miniature cynolebiasine from the Atlantic Forest and alternative biogeographical explanations for seasonal killifish distribution patterns in South America (Cyprinodontiformes: Rivulidae).
''Vertebrate Zoology, 64 (1): 23–33''. The specific name of this fish honours the Brazilian

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of October ...

and

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning " reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and r ...

Antenor Leitão de Carvalho Antenor Leitão de Carvalho is a Brazilian herpetologist and ichthyologist, born on 15 April 1910 and died on 11 December 1985 in Rio de Janeiro. Taxa named in his honor * '' Pipa carvalhoi'' * '' Plecostomus carvalhoi'' * '' Discocystus ca ...

(1910-1985).

References

Monotypic fish genera Rivulidae Fish of the Mucuri River basin Endemic fish of Brazil {{Cyprinodontiformes-stub