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Hydrolycus armatus (Jardine, 1841)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Open encyclopedia reference

Hydrolycus armatus is a species of dogtooth characin found in freshwater of tropical South America. It is sometimes known as the black-tailed payara, payara, silver payara, or harm, a name it shares with the related H. scomberoides and H. tatauaia.

This predatory fish occasionally makes its way into the aquarium trade, but it requires a very large tank. In its native range it is considered a major gamefish.

Wikipedia contributors, Hydrolycus armatus; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T22:50:26.546995+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name
Hydrolycus armatus (Jardine, 1841)
Name authority
(Jardine, 1841)
Rank
species
Accepted status
accepted
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Teleostei
Order
Characiformes
Family
Cynodontidae
Genus
Hydrolycus
Extinction status
Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: no · Freshwater: yes · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

  1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
  2. kingdomAnimalia
  3. phylumChordata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. infraphylumGnathostomata
  6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
  7. gigaclassActinopterygii
  8. superclassActinopteri
  9. classTeleostei
  10. orderCharaciformes
  11. suborderCharacoidei
  12. familyCynodontidae Eigenmann, 1903
  13. subfamilyCynodontinae Eigenmann, 1903
  14. genusHydrolycus Müller & Troschel, 1844
  15. speciesHydrolycus armatus (Jardine, 1841)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Hydrolycus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

SpeciesClassificationSource status
Hydrolycus wallacei Toledo-Piza, Menezes & Santos, 1999CynodontidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied
Hydrolycus tatauaia Toledo-Piza, Menezes & Santos, 1999CynodontidaeChordataAccepted speciesExtinction status not supplied

Browse 7 records assigned to Cynodontidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded nameSource status
Hydrocyon armatus Jardine, 1841 Jardine, 1841synonym

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

  1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1418385 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3N7HR. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.