Proceedings of the United States National Museum SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION • WASHINGTON, D.C. REVIEW OF SOUTH AMERICAN CHARACID FISHES OF SUBTRIBE NANNOSTOMINA ' By Stanley H. Weitzman Associate Curator, Division of Fishes Introduction Fishes of the subtribe Nannostomina, family Characidae, form a clearly definable group of about nine small South American freshwater fishes. No member is known over 44.5 mm. in standard length. They appear restricted in habitat to shaded forest brooks, seepages, and ponds, and are apparently confined to the Guianas, Rio Orinoco in Venezuela, and the Amazon Basin of Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia. All of the known species have been imported into Europe or North America as aquarium fishes. In the aquarium trade they are known as pencil fishes. The osteology and relationships of these fishes have been treated elsewhere (Weitzman 1964), and their intercharacid relationships will be but briefly mentioned here. They are members of the characid subfamily Lebiasininae, which consists of two tribes, the Lebiasinini and the Pyrrhulinini. The Pyrrhulinini comprises two subtribes, the Pyrrhulinina and the Nannostomina. The Nannostomina appears to be the most specialized group within the Lebiasininae. ' This paper is the third and final of three parts based on a Ph. D. dissertation submitted at Stanford University, Calif. See Weitzman (1962, 1964) for the two preceding parts. 1
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