Education

Ph.D. 1976, City University of New York
B.S. 1971, New York University

Research Interests

Taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of South America, African, and South Asian freshwater fishes, in particular characiforms and siluriforms.

Recent Publications

Jerep, Fernando C. and Vari, Richard P. 2013. New Species of Hemigrammocharax (Characiformes: Distichodontidae) from the Northwestern Congo River Basin. Copeia, 2013: 31-37.

Datovo, Alessio and Vari, Richard P. 2013. The jaw adductor muscle complex in teleostean fishes: evolution, homologies and revised nomenclature (Osteichthyes: Actinopterygii). Plos One, 8(4): 1-23. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0060846

de Santana, Carlos D. and Vari, Richard P. 2012. New species of Adontosternarchus (Gymnotiformes, Apteronotidae) from the Rio Purus basin, Brazil. Copeia, 2012(3): 535-540. doi:10.1643/CI-11-135

Bogan, Sergio, Sidlauskas, Brian, Vari, Richard P. and Agnolin, Frederico 2012. Arrhinolemur scalabrinii Ameghino, 1898, of the late Miocene - a taxonomic journey from the Mammalia to the Anostomidae (Ostariophysi: Characiformes). Neotropical Ichthyology, 10(3): 555-560. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252012000300008

Ballen, Gustavo and Vari, Richard P. 2012. Review of the Andean armored catfishes of the genus Dolichancistrus Isbrücker (Siluformes: Loricariidae). Neotropical Ichthyology, 10(3): 499-518. doi:10.1590/S1679-62252012000300003

Sidlauskas, Brian L. and Vari, Richard P. 2012. Diversity and distribution of anostomoid fishes (Teleostei: Characiformes) throughout the Guianas. Cybium, 36(1): 71-103.

Vari, Richard P., Sidlauskas , Brian L. and Le Bail, Pierre-Yves 2012. New species of Cyphocharax (Ostariophysi: Characiformes: Curimatidae) from Suriname and French Guiana and a discussion of curimatid diversity on the Guiana Shield. Cybium, 36(1): 63-69.

Fernández, Luis and Vari, Richard P. 2012. New species of Trichomycterus (Teleostei: Siluriformes) from the Andean Cordillera of Argentina and the second record of the genus in thermal waters. Copeia, 2012(4): 631-636. doi:10.1643/CI-12-035

Vari, Richard P., De Santana, Carlos D. and Wosiacki, Wolmar B. 2012. South American electric knifefishes of the genus Archolaemus (Ostariophysi, Gymnotiformes): undetected diversity in a clade of rheopiles. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 165: 670-699. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00827.x

Mol, Jan H., Vari, Richard P., Covain, Raphael, Willink, Philip and Fisch-Muller, Sonia 2012. Annotated checklist of the freshwater fishes of Suriname. Cybium, 36(1): 293-319.

Vari, Richard P., Ferraris Jr., Carl J. and Skelton, Paul H. 2012. New species of Congoglanis (Siluriformes: Amphiliidae) from the southern Congo River basin. Copeia, 2012(4): 626-630. doi:10.1643/CI-12-029

Ferraris, Carl J. J. and Vari, Richard P. 2012. Review of the African catfish genus Andersonia (Teleostei: Siluriformes). Zootaxa, 3210: 39-49.

Vari, Richard P. and Hadiaty, Renny Kurnia 2012. The endemic Sulawesi fish genus Lagusia (Teleostei: Terapontidae). The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 60(1): 157-162.

Guisande, Cástor, Pelayo-Villamil, Patricia, Vera, Manuel, Manjarrés-Hernández, Ana, Carvalho, Mónica R., Vari, Richard P., Jiménez, Lus F., Fernández, Carlos, Martínez, Paulino, Preto-Piraquive, Edgar and Granado-Lorencio, Carlos 2012. Ecological factors and diversification among Neotropical characiforms. International Journal of Ecology, 2012 doi:10.1155/2012/610419

Ferraris, Carl J., Jr., Vari, Richard P. and Skelton, Paul H. 2011. A new genus of African Loach Catfish (Siluriformes: Amphiliidae) from the Congo River basin, the sister-group to all other genera of the Doumeinae with the description of two new species. Copeia, 2011(4): 477-489. doi:10.1643/CI-11-005

Netto-Ferreira, Andr and Vari, Richard P. 2011. New species of Steindachnerina (Characiformes: Curimatidae) from the Rio Tapajós, Brazil, and review of the genus in the Rio Tapajós and Rio Xingu basins. Copeia, 2011(4): 523-529. doi:10.1643/CI-10-188

Oliveira, Claudio, Avelino, Gleisy S., Abe, Kelly T., Mariguela, Tatiane C., Benine, Ricardo C., Orti, Guillermo, Vari, Richard P. and Correa e Castro, Ricardo M. 2011. Phylogenetic relationships within the speciose family Characidae (Teleostei: Ostariophysi: Characiformes) based on multilocus analysis and extensive in group sampling. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 11(1): 275 doi:10.1186/1471-2148-11-275

Sidlauskas, Brian L., Mol, Jan H. and Vari, Richard P. 2011. Dealing with allometry in linear and geometric morphometrics: a taxonomic case study in the Leporinus cylindriformis group (Characiformes: Anostomidae) with description of a new species from Suriname. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 162: 103-130.

Sidlauskas, Brian, Bernard, Calvin, Bloom, Devin, Bronaugh, Whitcomb, Clemenstson, Michael and Vari, Richard P. 2011. Ichthyologists hooked on Facebook. Science, 332(6029): 537

De Santana, Carlos and Vari, Richard P. 2010. Electric fishes of the genus Sternarchorhynchus (Teleostei, Ostariophysi, Gymnotiformes); phylogenetic and revisionary studies. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 159(1): 223-371.

de Santana, Carlos and Vari, Richard P. 2010. New rheophilic species of electric knifefish from the rapids and waterfalls of the lower Rio Xingu, Brazil (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae). Copeia, 2010(1): 160-165.

Ferraris, Carl J., Jr., Skelton, Paul and Vari, Richard P. 2010. Species of the Doumea chappuisi complex (Siluriformes, Amphiliidae) with the descriptions of new species from the upper Sanaga River and Nyong River basins. Copeia, 2010(4): 705-715.

Vari, Richard P., Zanata, Angela M. and Camelier, Priscila 2010. New species of Cyphocharax (Ostariophysi: Characiformes: Curimatidae) from the Rio de Contas drainage, Bahia, Brazil. Copeia, 2010(3): 382-387.

Fernández, Luis and Vari, Richard P. 2009. New species of Trichomycterus from the Andean Cordillera of Argentina (Siluriformes: Trichomycteridae). Copeia, 2009(1): 195-202.

Lucinda, Paulo H. F. and Vari, Richard P. 2009. New Steindachnerina species (Teleostei: Characiformes: Curimatidae) from the Rio Tocantins Drainage. Copeia, 2009(1): 142-147.

Maldonado-Ocampo, Javier, Vari, Richard P. and Usma, José S. 2009. Checklist of the freshwater fishes of Colombia. Biota Colombiana, 9(2): 143-237.

Vari, Richard P. and Ferraris, Carl J., Jr. 2009. New Species Cetopsidium (Siluriformes, Cetopsidae, Cetopsinae) from the Rupununi region of Guyana. Neotropical Ichthyology, 7(3): 289-193.

De Santana, Carlos and Vari, Richard P. 2009. The South America electric fish genus Platyurosternarchus (Gymnotiformes: Apteronotidae). Copeia, 2009(2): 233-244.

Vari, Richard P. and Ferraris, Carl J., Jr. 2009. Fishes of the Guiana Shield. Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington, 17: 9-18.

Vari, Richard P. 2009. Families Anostomidae, Cetopsidae, Chilodontidae, Ctenoluccidae, Curimatidae, Prochilodontidae. Bulletin of the Biological Society of Washington, 17: 26-28,36.