Pterolebias Garman 1895 is a very old genus (type species Pterolebias longipinnis Garman, 1895). The genus comprises a widely-spread group of fishes that exhibit remarkable differences in their coloration and fin-shape, and can be found in Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina. The question arises, does this great variety of coloration and distribution, warrant separating them into more than one species? Pterolebias bokermanni (Travassos 1955) and P. luelingi (Meinken 1969) were found in the same huge area where P. longipinnis occurs.

Wilson Costa removed seven of nine species to either Aphyolebias Costa 1998 (including Pterolebias peruensis) or Gnatholebias Costa 1998. Thereby Pterolebias comprised only P. longipinnis and P. phasianus. Costa’s (2005) revision of the genus relegated P. bokermanni and P. luelingi to junior synonyms of Pterolebias longipinnis.

Costa also rejected the hypothesis that Gnatholebias be subsumed within Pterolebias, as was suggested by other scientists, on the basis of osteological studies. Pterolebias bokermanni was subsequently revalidated, from osteological evidence.
As stated I follow J. Huber (www.killi-data.org) concerning taxonomy, and keep these names as valid until further studies demonstrate better schemes.

Behaviour:

For breeding info see the species pages.