Pachyurus

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Megacohors: Osteoglossocephalai
Supercohors: Clupeocephala
Cohors: Euteleosteomorpha
Subcohors: Neoteleostei
Infracohors: Eurypterygia
Sectio: Ctenosquamata
Subsectio: Acanthomorphata
Divisio/Superordo: Acanthopterygii
Subdivisio: Percomorphaceae
Series: Eupercaria
Ordo: Perciformes
Subordo: Percoidei
Superfamilia: Percoidea

Familia: Sciaenidae
Genus: Pachyurus
Species: P. adspersus – P. bonariensis – P. calhamazon – P. francisci – P. gabrielensis – P. junki – P. paucirastrus – P. schomburgkii – P. squamipennis – P. stewarti
Name

Pachyurus Agassiz in Spix and Agassiz, 1831
References

Pachyurus – Taxon details on Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).
Pachyurus species list in FishBase,
Froese, R. & Pauly, D. (eds.) 2024. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication, www.fishbase.org, version 02/2024.

Vernacular names

Pachyurus is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. The ten recognised species in the genus are found in South America.
Taxonomy

Pachyurus was first proposed as a genus in 1831 by the Swiss born American naturalist Louis Agassiz when he described the new species Pachyurus squamipennis,[1] with a type locality given as Januária on the São Francisco River, Minas Gerais, in Brazil.[2] The genus Pachyurus is included in the subfamily Pachyurinae by some workers,[3] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae, which it places in the order Acanthuriformes.[4] In addition, Pachyurinae, is an invalid name as it is preoccupied by a tribe of cycad weevils, the Pachyurini Kuschel, 1959 .[1]
Etymology

Pachyurus is a combination of pachy, meaning "thick", and oura, which means "tail". This is an allusion to the dense covering of scales on the caudal fin of the type species, P. squamipennis.[5]
Species

Pachyurus contains ten described, recognised species:[6]

Pachyurus adspersus Steindachner, 1879 (Brazilian croaker)
Pachyurus bonariensis Steindachner, 1879 (La Plata croaker)
Pachyurus calhamazon Casatti, 2001
Pachyurus francisci (Cuvier 1830) (San Francisco croaker)
Pachyurus gabrielensis Casatti, 2001
Pachyurus junki Soares & Casatti, 2000
Pachyurus paucirastrus Aguilera, 1983
Pachyurus schomburgkii Günther, 1860 (Amazon croaker)
Pachyurus squamipennis Agassiz, 1831
Pachyurus stewarti Casatti & Chao, 2002

Characteristics

Pachyurus croakers have a moderately elongated body with a sounded, slightly high dorsal profile and a straight or slightly arched, ventral profile. They have a conical head with a swollen and blunt snout. The mouth is horizontal and may be terminal or below the snout. The eyes are moderately large to large. The snout has five marginal pores, typically they lack upper pores but these are present in some species. The chin has five pores but no barbels. The second spine of the anal fin is moderately sized or robust.[7] These are relatively small croakers, the largest species is P. junki with a maximum published total length of 35.5 cm (14.0 in).[6]
Distribution

Pachyurus croakers are found in freshwater habitats in South America from Guyana south to Argentina.[7]One species, the La Plata croaker (P. bonariensis), is an invasive, non native species in the Lagoa Mirim and Lagoa dos Patos systems in Uruguay and Brazil where it is already numerous enough to be important in commercial fisheries in these lakes. They reached these lakes either by deliberate introduction or by moving from the nearby river systems through flooded rice fields.[8]
References

Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Sciaenidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Pachyurus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 13 June 2023.
Kunio Sasaki (1989). "Phylogeny of the family Sciaenidae, with notes on its Zoogeography (Teleostei, Peciformes)" (PDF). Memoirs of the Faculty of Fishes Hokkaido University. 36 (1–2): 1–137.
J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 497–502. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6.
Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara, eds. (9 March 2023). "Series Eupercaria (Incertae sedis): Families Callanthidae, Centrogenyidae, Dinopercidae, Emmelichthyidae, Malacanthidae, Monodactylidae, Moronidae, Parascorpididae, Sciaenidae and Sillagidae". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2023). Species of Pachyurus in FishBase. February 2023 version.
Labbish Ning Chao (1978). "A basis for classifying western Atlantic Sciaenidae (Teleostei: Perciformes)" (PDF). NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Technical Report NMFS (National Marine Fisheries Service). Circular No. 415.
Harayashiki, Cyntia; Junior, Antonio; Burns, Marcelo; and Vieira, João (2014). "Establishing evidence of a non-native species Pachyurus bonariensis Steindachner, 1879 (Perciformes, Sciaenidae) in Mirim Lagoon, Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)". BioInvasions Records. 3 (2): 103–110. doi:10.3391/bir.2014.3.2.08.