Gastrodermus

Gastrodermus
Elegant corydoras (Gastrodermus elegans)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Siluriformes
Family:	Callichthyidae
Subfamily:	Corydoradinae
Genus:	Gastrodermus Cope, 1878 [1]
Type species
Corydoras elegans Steindachner, 1876 [1]
Synonyms [1]
Microcorydoras Myers, 1953

Gastrodermus is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the subfamily Corydoradinae, the corys, of the family Callichthyidae, the armoured catfishes. The catfishes in this genus are found in South America.

Taxonomy

Gastrodermus was first proposed as a genus in 1878 by the American paleontologist and biologist Edward Drinker Cope with Corydoras elegans, a species described in 1872 by Franz Steindachner from the Amazon of Brazil, designated as its type species by William Alonzo Gosline III in 1940. ^{[1] [2]} For a long period this taxon was regarded as a synonym of Corydoras but it was resurrected as a valid genus by a phylogenomic analysis published in 2025. ^[3] This genus is classified in the subfamily Corydoradinae of the armoured catfish family Callichtyidae in the suborder Loricarioidei in the catfish order Siluriformes. ^[4]

Etymology

Gastrodermus combines gaster, meaning "belly", with derma, which means "skin". These fishes do not have the coracoid bones enclosing the ventral region, ubnlike most of their former congeners in Corydoras. ^[5]

Species

Gastrodermus contains the following valid species: ^[2]

• Gastrodermus bilineatus (Knaack, 2002)
• Gastrodermus elegans (Steindachner, 1876)
• Gastrodermus gracilis (Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1976)
• Gastrodermus guapore (Knaack, 1961)
• Gastrodermus hastatus (C. H. Eigenmann & R. S. Eigenmann, 1888)
• Gastrodermus latus (Pearson, 1924)
• Gastrodermus mamore (Knaack, 2002)
• Gastrodermus nanus (Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1967)
• Gastrodermus napoensis (Nijssen & Isbrücker, 1986)
• Gastrodermus nijsseni (Sands, 1989)
• Gastrodermus paucerna (Knaack, 2004)
• Gastrodermus pauciradiatus (Weitzman & Nijssen, 1970)
• Gastrodermus pygmaeus (Knaack, 1966)
• Gastrodermus undulatus (Regan, 1912)

References

1. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Corydoradinae". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 8 December 2025.
2. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Gastrodermus". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 8 December 2025.
3. Angelica C Dias; Luiz F C Tencatt; Fabio F Roxo; et al. (2025). "Phylogenomic analyses in the complex Neotropical subfamily Corydoradinae (Siluriformes: Callichthyidae) with a new classification based on morphological and molecular data". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 203 (3) zlae053. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae053.
4. Richard van der Laan; Ronald Fricke (eds.). "Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes Classification". Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 8 December 2025.
5. Christopher Scharpf (5 December 2025). "Family CALLICHTHYIDAE Bonaparte 1835 (Armored Catfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf. Retrieved 8 December 2025.