With 84 species currently described, Characidium may be the most diverse fish genus known to science. This is the conclusion reached by Brazilian scientists after analyzing more than 4,400 specimens of this genus of South American darters endemic to the Neotropical region and known in Brazil as mocinha or charutinho.
Ten of the species had already been described, and four required additional molecular analysis for confirmation as novel species. According to the authors, the remaining species was certainly new to the scientific literature and had yet to be named.
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