Satanoperca

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: Ovalentaria
Superordo: Cichlomorphae
Ordo: Cichliformes

Familia: Cichlidae
Subfamilia: Geophaginae
Genus: Satanoperca
Species: S. acuticeps – S. curupira – S. daemon – S. jurupari – S. leucosticta – S. lilith – S. mapiritensis – S. pappaterra – S. rhynchitis
Name

Satanoperca Günther, 1862

Type species: Geophagus daemon Heckel, 1840. Type by subsequent designation. Type designated by Jordan & Evermann, 1898.
References

Günther, A., 1862: Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Acanthopterygii, Pharyngognathi and Anacanthini in the collection of the British Muesum. 4: 1–534.
Jordan, D. S. & Evermann, B. W., 1898: The fishes of North and Middle America: a descriptive catalogue of the species of fish-like vertebrates found in the waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama. Part II. Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 47: 1241–2183.
Ota, R.R., Kullander, S.O., Deprá, G. de C., Graça, W.J.D. & Pavanelli, C.S. 2018. Satanoperca curupira, a new cichlid species from the rio Madeira basin in Brazil (Teleostei: Cichlidae). Zootaxa 4379(1): 103–112. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4379.1.6 Reference page.

Satanoperca is a small genus of cichlids from South America, where they are known from the Orinoco, Essequibo, Nickerie, Amazon and Paraná–Paraguay river basins.[1][2] They are mainly found in areas with slow-moving waters,[3] but some species have also been recorded from rapids.[4]

They are part of a group popularly known as eartheaters and feed by picking up mouthfuls of sand to sift out food items such as invertebrates, plant material and detritus (the only exception is mid-water feeding S. acuticeps).[3] They often feed in small groups and one individual may act as a watchman, which will charge an approaching piranha with its mouth open and fins erected. The Satanoperca in the group take turn acting as watchman.[3]

Satanoperca are up to 25.5 cm (10 in) in standard length, but the smallest species reach less than 2⁄3 that size.[2] The species fall into two or three main groups: The S. daemon group (including S. lilith) are relatively large, and have a distinct dark spot on the tail and one or two dark spots on the side of the body. S. acuticeps is rather similar and variably placed in its own group or included in the S. daemon group, but it has three dark spots on the body and a differently shaped mouth. The remaining species are part of the S. jurupari group, which may have a small tail-spot and may have a poorly defined pattern of dark bands or blotches on the body, but always lack distinct dark spots on the body.[5][6][7]
Species

There are currently 9 recognized species in this genus.[1][2] Additionally, undescribed species are known.[6]

Satanoperca acuticeps (Heckel, 1840) (Sharphead eartheater)
Satanoperca curupira Ota et al., 2018[7]
Satanoperca daemon (Heckel, 1840) (Threespot eartheater)
Satanoperca jurupari (Heckel, 1840) (Demon eartheater)
Satanoperca leucosticta (J. P. Müller & Troschel, 1848)
Satanoperca lilith S. O. Kullander & E. J. G. Ferreira, 1988
Satanoperca mapiritensis (Fernández-Yépez, 1950)
Satanoperca pappaterra (Heckel, 1840) (Pantanal eartheater)
Satanoperca rhynchitis S. O. Kullander, 2012
Satanoperca setepele Ota, Deprá, Kullander, Graça & Pavanelli, 2022[8]

References

Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Satanoperca". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2019). Species of Satanoperca in FishBase. July 2019 version.
van der Sleen, P.; J.S. Albert, eds. (2017). Field Guide to the Fishes of the Amazon, Orinoco, and Guianas. Princeton University Press. p. 382. ISBN 978-0691170749.
Kullander, S.O. (2012). "A taxonomic review of Satanoperca (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from French Guiana, South America, with description of a new species". Cybium. 36 (1): 247–262.
Kullander, S.O.; E.J.H. Ferreira (1988). "A new Satanoperca species (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from the Amazon River Basin in Brazil". Cybium. 12 (4): 343–355.
Willis, S.C.; H. López-Fernández; C.G. Montaña; I.P. Farias; G. Ortí (2012). "Species-level phylogeny of 'Satan's perches' based on discordant gene trees (Teleostei: Cichlidae: Satanoperca Günther 1862)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 63 (3): 798–808. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2012.02.018. PMID 22406409.
Ota, R.R.; S.O. Kullander; G.C. Deprá; W.J. da Graça; C.S. Pavanelli (2018). "Satanoperca curupira, a new cichlid species from the rio Madeira basin in Brazil (Teleostei: Cichlidae)". Zootaxa. 4379 (1): 103–112. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4379.1.6. PMID 29689976.
"Satanoperca setepele Ota, Deprá, Kullander, Graça & Pavanelli 2022". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database: Name of the Week. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. 12 January 2022. Retrieved 12 January 2022.