Taxonomic study on the relationship of Northern Neotropical Ariidae using NGS data Taxonomy

The systematics of the Ariidae was recently revised (Acero P. & Betancur-R., 2007; Ricardo Betancur-R., 2009; Ricardo Betancur-R. et al., 2007; Ricardo Betancur-R., Orti, Stein, Marceniuk, & Pyron, 2012; Alexandre P Marceniuk & Menezes, 2007; Alexandre P Marceniuk, Menezes, & Britto, 2012) based on cladistic characters alone (Acero, and Marceniuk and colleagues) or by a combination of molecular and morphological markers (Betancur-R. and colleagues). Molecular studies were based on few mitochondrial and nuclear genes. New species are frequently described, still, in Meso- and South America (Acero P. & Betancur-R., 2002; R Betancur-R. & Acero, 2004; R Betancur-R. & Acero P., 2005; Ricardo Betancur-R., Marceniuk, & Béarez, 2008; A.P. Marceniuk, 2007; Alexandre P Marceniuk, Betancur-R., Acero P., & Muriel-Cunha, 2012). New discoveries lead to more and more new species in need of formal description (Ricardo Betancur-R., 2009). Recent studies on the lineage diversification of Bagre bagre from Brazil in particular (da Silva, Marceniuk, Sales, & Araripe, 2016) and the taxonomy of ariids from Panama, and Venezuela in general (Stange et al., 2016), found more unrecognised entities that were not mentioned before. In this work we sequenced 21 verified species, plus two additional populations we think are divergent to their affiliated species based on the findings of Stange and colleagues (2016).