Molecular study of Astyanax altiparanae (Osteichthyes, Characidae) as a probable species complex.

Astyanax altiparanae, belonging to the bimaculatus group, which includes species with similar colors and morphology, occurs in the upper Parana River basin. As the use of mitochondrial DNA has made great strides in the diagnosis of species, in previous researches, two strains were detected in A. altiparanae with a high divergence in the D-loop region, provisionally called AltoPR and AltoPR-D. Evidence led to the hypothesis that the two strains did not belong to the same species. Phylogenetic hypotheses were produced by maximum-likelihood. Mean internal distances of the AltoPR and