Proceedings of 

 the United States 

 National Museum 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. 



REVIEW OF SOUTH AMERICAN CHARACID FISHES 

 OF SUBTRIBE NANNOSTOMINA ' 



By Stanley H. Weitzman 



Associate Curator, Division of Fishes 



Introduction 



Fishes of the subtribe Nannostomina, family Characidae, form a 

 clearly definable group of about nine small South American freshwater 

 fishes. No member is known over 44.5 mm. in standard length. 

 They appear restricted in habitat to shaded forest brooks, seepages, 

 and ponds, and are apparently confined to the Guianas, Rio Orinoco 

 in Venezuela, and the Amazon Basin of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and 

 Bolivia. All of the known species have been imported into Europe 

 or North America as aquarium fishes. In the aquarium trade they 

 are known as pencil fishes. 



The osteology and relationships of these fishes have been treated 

 elsewhere (Weitzman 1964), and their intercharacid relationships 

 will be but briefly mentioned here. They are members of the characid 

 subfamily Lebiasininae, which consists of two tribes, the Lebiasinini 

 and the Pyrrhulinini. The Pyrrhulinini comprises two subtribes, the 

 Pyrrhulinina and the Nannostomina. The Nannostomina appears to 

 be the most specialized group within the Lebiasininae. 



' This paper is the third and final of three parts based on a Ph. D. dissertation 

 submitted at Stanford University, Calif. See Weitzman (1962, 1964) for the 

 two preceding parts. 



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