Thorichthys panchovillai Del Moral-Flores, López-Segovia & Hernández-Arellano, 2017
09-May-2017 — New species of Thorichthys described
By Juan Miguel Artigas Azas
A new species of Thorichthys has been described in the journal Revista peruana de biología: 24(n. 1), pp. 3-10. The new species, endemic to the Coatzacoalcos river drainage in Mexico, has been known for many years as Cichlasoma (Thorichthys) "helleri" (Artigas Azas 1991, who first recognized the species as new), Thorichthys sp. 'Coatzacoalcos' (Stawikowski et al, 1998) and later as Thorichthys sp. ‘mixteco’ in several publications. This species is diagnosed by the authors from the rest of the Thorichthys species by a set of meristic characters (that actually don’t difference it from them) and by the presence of a “black blotch on the dorsal fin of the females between the sixth and seventh spine” (which actually T. helleri also has in some populations). The specific name chosen for the species, panchovillai, is to honor the Mexican revolution prominent figure José Doroteo Arango Arámbula (Pancho Villa). Why such a beautiful fish was named after a notorious murdered and thief that in a power struggle was partially responsible of the killing of 20% of Mexican population at the beginning of the 20th century, and never put a foot on the land of this beautiful species, is mysterious at least.
del Moral Flores, Luis Fernando & E. López-Segovia, T. Hernández-Arellano. 2017. "Descripción de Thorichthys panchovillai sp. n., una nueva especie de cíclido (Actinopterygii: Cichlidae) de la cuenca del Río Coatzacoalcos, México". Revista peruana de biología. 24(1):3-10 (ffm08118) (abstract)