Plectrochilus

Plectrochilus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Division:	Teleostei
Order:	Siluriformes
Family:	Trichomycteridae
Subfamily:	Vandelliinae
Genus:	Plectrochilus; A. Miranda-Ribeiro, 1917
Type species
	Plectrochilus machadoi; Miranda-Ribeiro, 1917

Plectrochilus is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Trichomycteridae, the pencil and parasitic catfishes, and the subfamily Vandelliinae, the haematophagic catfishes. The catfishes in this genus are found in South America.

Species

Plectrochilus contains the following valid species:^[2]

Plectrochilus diabolicus (Myers, 1927)
Plectrochilus machadoi A. Miranda-Ribeiro, 1917
Plectrochilus wieneri (Pellegrin, 1909)

P. diabolicus and P. machadoi are found in the Amazon River basin in Brazil and Peru, while P. wieneri is found in the Napo River basin of Ecuador.^[3]

P. diabolicus grows to 4.8 centimetres (1.9 in) SL.^[4] P. machadoi grows to 9.3 cm (3.7 in).^[5]

Specimens of P. machadoi have been found partially buried in the belly of a specimen of Pseudoplatystoma where it apparently had burrowed through the body wall.^[5]

References

1 2 Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Vendellinae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
↑ Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Plectrochilus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 November 2025.
↑ Ferraris, Carl J. Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.
↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Plectrochilus diabolicus". FishBase. July 2007 version.
1 2 Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Plectrochilus machadoi". FishBase. July 2007 version.

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[Cof_family-1] 1 2 Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Vendellinae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 November 2025.

[Cof_genus-2] Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Plectrochilus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 November 2025.

[Ferraris-3] Ferraris, Carl J. Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–628. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.

[diabolicus-4] Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Plectrochilus diabolicus". FishBase. July 2007 version.

[machadoi-5] 1 2 Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Plectrochilus machadoi". FishBase. July 2007 version.

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