Open Access PDF - Sven Kullander

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intense on lower head side, turning greenish
dorsally and on caudal peduncle, ventral parts
white. Iris yellowish. Bars or blotches black, ocellar
margins white. Branchiostegal membrane may
be orange and lower half of caudal fin as well as
anal fin may be yellowish. Nuchal hump dark
grey in specimens showing this feature (Fig. 72).
Geographical distribution. Lower Rio Tapajós,
Rio Curuá-Una, lower Rio Xingu, lower Rio Tocantins,
and Rio Capim (Fig. 75); uncertain localities
in southern Amapá and Rio Arapiuns,
introduced in Rio Paraguaçu in eastern Brazil,
and probably elsewhere in northeastern Brazil.
Etymology. The species epithet pinima is a Tupi-
Guarani adjective meaning spotted with white,
and is here used as a noun in apposition.
Local names. We propose tucunaré pinima as
Brazilian name for this species, selecting a name
already in use.
Notes. Tucunaré pinima is applied as a local
name on the current species at least in the Nordeste
region of Brazil, where it forms self-sustaining
stocks following introductions into numerous
reservoirs in the 1940s (Fontenele, 1948; Braga,
1952, 1953; Menezes, 1953; Bezerra e Silva et al.,
1980; as C. temensis). According to Menezes (1953:
382-383) tucunaré pinima was the name used
locally by the Serviço de Piscicultura in Fortaleza
(Ceará) for the species sent there by Museu Goeldi
as tucunaré-açu. Santos et al. (1985), in a catalog
of fishes from the Tucurui dam, illustrate the
adult as C. ocellaris, tucunaré-açu, and the young
as C. temensis, tucunaré-pinima. Nomura (1984:
454-455) included tucunaré-pinima as a synonym
of tucunaré-açu as well as tucunaré-tinga, identified
as C. temensis, and identified tucunaré-comum
as C. ocellaris. His illustration of C. ocellaris
is a reproduction of Spix & Agassiz’s (1831: pl.
63) illustration of C. monoculus. Santos (1981:156)
uses the vernacular tucunaré putanga, referring
to a lecture by Carlos Estevão (then director of
the Museu Goeldi in Belém) at the Rotary Clube
do Pará, and indicating that it would have been
reproduced also in Ceará, but is possibly not his
species.
Sawaya (1946) conducted experiments on
Cichla and Astronotus in ponds in Museu Goeldi
and reported on tucunaré putanga as well as a
hybrid C. temensis × C. ocellaris, but without clues
to their identity. Sawaya & Maranhão (1946) reported
on tucunaré açú (Cichla ocellaris), tucunaré
putanga (species not yet well determined), tucunaré
tinga (C. temensis) and the ‘hybrid’. Sawaya
& Maranhão (1946) considered the putanga to be
more elongate than the tucunaré-açu, with more
elongate head and smaller interorbital space. The
lateral line is said to be broken in the young and
never turning entire in the adults. The small whitish
spots would always be absent, in adults as
well as juveniles. There is no further information
from Museu Goeldi or elsewhere on the putanga.
There is a possibility that the name putanga, of
unknown meaning, resulted from a misunderstanding
or misapplication involving the names
pinima and tinga.
There seems to have been considerable confusion
over what species was being studied in
Museu Goeldi as well as in the fisheries station
at Fortaleza. For certain, C. pinima was studied in
Ceará, as evidenced by photos and illustrations
in Braga (1953), Fontenele (1948) and Bezerra e
Silva et al. (1980). Also C. kelberi, identified as
C. ocellaris (tucunaré comum) by Fontenele (1948),
was cultivated. Three specimens that we refer to
C. pinima, MZUSP 50273, 177-288 mm SL, labeled
Museu Goeldi, have an aspect indicating stunted
growth. They have deeper head, deeper body,
longer pectoral fin, and larger eye than other
C. pinima of similar length, and separate from a
cluster formed by the other species in a morphometric
canonical discriminant analysis (not shown).
They also have relatively low E1 scale counts (78,
84, 88). We thus excluded those specimens from
the morphometric analysis, although the colour
pattern agrees with C. pinima.
Cichla pinima is widely distributed, and there
are large, well preserved series chiefly from the
lower Rio Tapajós drainage supplemented by well
preserved material from the lower Rio Xingu. The
species is characterized by the early appearance,
below 100 mm SL, of a blackish, more or less
ocellated blotch dorsally in bar 3, close to the
dorsal fin base. In large males this blotch is increased
in size and highly prominent, but then
similar in appearance to the corresponding blotch
in several other Cichla species. In C. vazzoleri, there
is no ocellated blotch close to the dorsal fin except
in large adults (about 300 mm and larger). In adult
C. vazzoleri, C. jariina, and C. thyrorus is typically
present a dark brown or black blotch at the anterodorsal
process of the subopercle, usually
absent in C. pinima.
Kullander & Ferreira: Review of Cichla