Phractura

Phractura
Phractura bovei
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Siluriformes
Family: Amphiliidae
Subfamily: Doumeinae
Genus: Phractura
Boulenger, 1900
Type species
Peltura bovei
Perugia, 1892
Species

See text.

Synonyms
  • Peltura Perugia, 1892 (also used for a genus of trilobites)
  • Paraphractura Boulenger, 1902

Phractura is a genus of loach catfishes (order Siluriformes) that occur in Africa.

Phractura species are elongated fish with a long caudal peduncle and bony scutes on the sides, back, and belly.,[1] this feature giving the genus its name from the Greek phraktos, which means enclosed and oura which means tail.[2] Phractura species are often associated with vegetation.[1] The genus was originally given the name Peltura but this name was preoccupied by a genus of trilobites which the name Peltura had been applied to by Louis Agassiz in 1846.[3] Phractura species, like other genera in Doumeinae, have a mouth modified into a suckermouth that allows it to clean to the objects and scrape the surface of the substrate.[4]

  1. ^ a b Skelton, Paul H. (1992). "Amphiliidae" (PDF). Faune des poissons d'eaux douces et saumâtres d'Afrique de l'Ouest (in French). Vol. Tome 2. Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, Belgique and O.R.S.T.O.M., Paris, France, 902. pp. 450–467.
  2. ^ "Summary of Phractura". PlabetCatish.com. Retrieved 28 July 2017.
  3. ^ Carl J. Ferraris Jr. (2007). "Checklist of catfishes, recent and fossil (Osteichthyes: Siluriformes), and catalogue of siluriform primary types" (PDF). Zootaxa. 1418: 1–625. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1418.1.1.
  4. ^ Diogo, Rui; Oliveira, Claudia; Chardon, Michel (January 2000). "On the anatomy and function of the cephalic structures in Phractura (Siluriformes: Amphiliidae), with comments on some striking homoplasies occurring between the Doumeinae and some loricaroid catfishes" (PDF). Belg. J. Zool. 130 (1): 117–130.