Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum (Linnaeu

Pseudoplatystoma fasciatum (Linnaeus, 1766)
(Figure 10, Table 1)
Silurus fasciatus Linnaeus, 1766:505. Type locality: Brazil and Suriname. Mees (1974:129), as first revisor, restricted
the type locality of P. fasciatum to Suriname. Holotype unknown.
Platystoma artedii G¸nther, 1864:164. Type locality: South America. Type(s): unknown.
Historical review. Linnaeus (1766) described Silurus fasciatus based on external morphology, including
number of fin spines and rays, pigmentation, shape of the rostrum, and texture of the skin. Linnaeus mentioned
in his original description the names of Gronovius and Seba, two reknowned cabinet owners (i.e., collectors)
at that time. Linnaeus based his description on material owned by one of these gentlemen, apparently
Albertus Seba. Engel (1961) and Boeseman (1970) tried to trace the ultimate destination of Seba's zoological
material with the intention of helping taxonomists find type specimens. They concluded that only a small part
of Seba's original material can be located accurately (Boeseman, 1970). His collections may have found their
way to museums in Leningrad, Berlin, Bremen, Stockholm, and The Hague (Boeseman, 1970), as well as
London and Paris. We have not been able to locate any type of Silurus fasciatus. An English translation of
Linnaeus’ original description is as follows:
"Posterior dorsal fin adipose. Anal fin with 13 rays, pelvics with 6 and spotted. Dorsal with 7 rays, caudal
17. Lower jaw short, rostrum flat and dark. Head long, flat, round anterior and reaching 1/2 the length of the
body. Dorsum with black and white stripes on each side. Abdomen white. All fins sprinkled with black spots.
Dorsal fin near the head, adipose near the tail. Habitat: Brazil and Suriname."
Linnaeus considered both Brazil and Suriname as the type locality of his Silurus fasciatus. We presume
that the locality of Suriname is based directly on the collection that Seba made there in 1758 (Mees, 1974),
whereas the reference to Brazil is based indirectly through Seba from Marcgrave (Mees, 1974). We follow
Mees (1974:129), the first revisor, in restricting the type locality of P. fasciatum to Suriname.