Farlowella is a genus of fish in the family Loricariidae native to South America. This genus is broadly distributed in Amazon, Orinoco, Paraná and coastal rivers of the Guyana Shield. It is absent from the Pacific slope of the Andes and from the coastal rivers of the Brazilian Shield. Many of these species are kept in aquariums. This genus has a unique body shape that resembles a thin stick of wood. The body is slender and elongate, often with a pronounced rostrum and a brownish color with two lateral dark stripes beginning at the tip of the rostrum, passing over the eyes and ending at the tail, which are periodically interrupted on the caudal peduncle.
Taxonomy
The genus is placed within the tribe Harttiini of the subfamily Loricariinae. Morphological, molecular and phylogenetic studies have placed Farlowella as sister to Sturisoma. The genus name of Farlowella is named in honor of William Gilson Farlow, a famous American botanist of Harvard University whose main work was working with algae plants, the favorite food of this slender catfish.
Species
There are currently 28 recognized species in this genus: Farlowella acus (Kner, 1853) Farlowella altocorpus Retzer, 2006 Farlowella amazonum (Günther, 1864) Farlowella colombiensis Retzer & Page, 1997 Farlowella curtirostra G. S. Myers, 1942 Farlowella gianetii Ballen, Pastana & L. A. W. Peixoto, 2016 Farlowella gracilis Regan, 1904 Farlowella hahni Meinken, 1937 Farlowella hasemani C. H. Eigenmann & Vance, 1917 Farlowella henriquei A. Miranda-Ribeiro, 1918 Farlowella isbruckeri Retzer & Page, 1997 Farlowella jauruensis C. H. Eigenmann & Vance, 1917 Farlowella knerii (Steindachner, 1882) Farlowella mariaelenae Martín Salazar, 1964 Farlowella martini Fernández-Yépez, 1972 Farlowella mitoupibo Ballen, Urbano-Bonilla & Zamudio, 2016 Farlowella nattereri Steindachner, 1910 Farlowella odontotumulus Retzer & Page, 1997 Farlowella oxyrryncha (Kner, 1853) Farlowella paraguayensis Retzer & Page, 1997 Farlowella reticulata Boeseman, 1971 Farlowella rugosa Boeseman, 1971 Farlowella schreitmuelleri C. G. E. Ahl, 1937 Farlowella smithi Fowler, 1913 Farlowella taphorni Retzer & Page, 1997 Farlowella venezuelensis Martín Salazar, 1964 Farlowella vittata G. S. Myers, 1942 Farlowella yarigui Ballen & Mojica, 2014