Holopristis

Holopristis
Head-and-taillight tetra (Holopristis ocellifera)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Characiformes
Family:	Acestrorhamphidae
Subfamily:	Thayeriinae
Genus:	Holopristis C. H. Eigenmann, 1903 [1]
Type species
Tetragonopterus ocellifer Steindachner, 1882 [1]

Holopristis is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Acestrorhamphidae, the American characins. The fishes in this genus are found in South America.

Holopristis was first erected as a genus by Carl H. Eigenmann in 1903, where it was noted to be related to Hemigrammus and distinguished by its dentition. ^[2] The chosen name was created from ὅλος (hólos) "entire" and πρίστης (prístēs) meaning sawyer, the profession (one who saws), not a surname and alludes to the teeth of the new type being present all along the jaw. ^[3]

The name was then relegated to a synonym of Hemigrammus and was only revalidated in 2024, ^[4] though this new system has yet to find wide acceptance.

Species

Holopristis contains teh following valid species: ^[5]

• Holopristis aguaruna (F. C. T. Lima, Correa & Ota, 2016)
• Holopristis falsa (Meinken, 1958)
• Holopristis guyanensis (Géry, 1959)
• Holopristis haraldi (Géry, 1961)
• Holopristis luelingi (Géry, 1964)
• Holopristis neptunus (Zarske & Géry, 2002)
• Holopristis ocellifera (Steindachner, 1882) (Head-and-taillight tetra)
• Holopristis pulchra (Ladiges, 1938) (Garnet tetra)
• Holopristis yinyang (F. C. T. Lima & Sousa, 2009)

References

1. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Family-Thayeriinae". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 30 October 2025.
2. Eigenmann, C. H. (9 December 1903). "New genera of South American fresh-water fishes, and new names for some old genera". Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections. 45: 145.
3. Christopher Scharpf (3 October 2025). "Family ACESTRORHAMPHIDAE Eigenmann 1907 (American Tetras)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Retrieved 29 October 2025.
4. Bruno F Melo; Rafaela P Ota; Ricardo C Benine; Fernando R Carvalho; Flavio C T Lima; George M T Mattox; Camila S Souza; Tiago C Faria; Lais Reia; Fabio F Roxo; Martha Valdez-Moreno; Thomas J Near; Claudio Oliveira (September 2024). "Phylogenomics of Characidae, a hyper-diverse Neotropical freshwater fish lineage, with a phylogenetic classification including four families (Teleostei: Characiformes)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 202 (1): zlae101 – via ResearchGate.
5. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Holopristis". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 30 October 2025.