1. Assessing biodiversity and understanding how it works is a prerequisite for species conservation. The Amazon basin is one of the main biodiversity hotspots where fish are heavily exploited for ornamental purposes.
2. The ornamental trade heavily exploits the genus Apistogramma, which is one of the most species‐rich among Neotropical cichlids with 94 formally described species. This number is certainly underestimated owing to the limitations of conventional taxonomy, which is still too often based solely on morphological criteria and sometimes on few individuals.
3. Most species of this genus have a high degree of endemism and are highly prized on the ornamental market, which could put them at risk. A few species are supposed to have extensive distributions, and in particular Apistogramma agassizii, present from the Amazon estuary up to the Ucayali and Marañon rivers in Peru.
4. This study assessed the taxonomic status of 1,151 specimens of A. agassizii collected from 35 sites around Iquitos in the Peruvian Amazon. On the basis of molecular analyses (nuclear and mitochondrial DNA) and mate choice experiments, at least three biological species within the nominal A. agassizii were evidenced in the sampling area, which is extremely small compared with the known distribution of the species as initially described.
5. According to the molecular calibrations, these three species would have diverged during the Plio‐Pleistocene. Two of them seem to be endemic from small sub‐basins, one from the Nanay River and the other from the Apayacu/Ampiyacu systems. A possible scenario that may explain the evolutionary history of these species is proposed.
6. The conservation implications of these results on the estimation of the diversity of A. agassizii, of Apistogramma species in general, and of other Amazonian cichlids are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

亚马孙矮慈鲷科动物Agassizii（Steindachner，1875年）是可能有数十种物种的地理镶嵌：保护意义

1. 评估生物多样性并了解其工作方式是保护物种的先决条件。亚马逊河流域是主要的生物多样性热点之一，鱼类大量用于观赏目的。
2. 观赏贸易大量利用了Apistogramma属，Apisogramma是新热带丽鱼科动物中种类最多的物种之一，有94个正式描述的物种。由于传统分类法的局限性，这一数字肯定被低估了，传统分类法仍然常常仅基于形态学标准，有时却很少基于个体。
3. 该属的大多数物种具有高度的特有性，在观赏市场上备受推崇，这可能使它们处于危险之中。据推测，少数物种具有广泛的分布，尤其是从亚马逊河河口一直到秘鲁的乌卡亚里河和马拉尼翁河存在的Apistogramma agassizii。
4. 这项研究评估了从秘鲁亚马逊伊基托斯周围35个地点收集的A. agassizii标本的1151个标本的分类状况。根据分子分析（核和线粒体DNA）和选配实验，在标本A. agassizii中的至少三个生物物种在采样区域被证明，与最初描述的物种已知分布相比，这非常小。
5. 根据分子校准，这三个物种在上新世之间会发散。它们中的两个似乎是小型流域的地方病，一个来自纳奈河，另一个来自Apayacu / Ampiyacu系统。提出了可能解释这些物种进化历史的可能方案。
6. 讨论了这些结果对A. agassizii，Apistogramma物种以及其他亚马逊丽鱼科鱼的多样性估计的保护意义。