Fishes from the Las Piedras River, Madre de Dios basin, Peruvian Amazon

Abstract

We report results of an ichthyological survey on the Las Piedras basin, a tributary of the Madre de Dios River located in the southwestern portion of the Amazon Basin in southeastern Peru. Collections were made at low water (June, 2011) from 180 - 270 m elevation, within the Fitzcarrald Arch. This is the last of four expeditions to the region with the goal of comparing the ichthyofaunas across the headwaters of the largest tributary basins in the western Amazon: Juruá, Ucayali, Purús and Madre de Dios rivers. Twenty-one sites along the Las Piedras River and its tributaries were sampled and a total of 144 species belonging to 32 families and seven orders were captured and identified. The most diverse families were Characidae (34 spp.), Loricariidae (23 spp.), and Pimelodidae (19 spp.).