Melanorivulini.

Loureiro, Marcelo, Sá, Rafael de, Serra, Sebastián W., Alonso, Felipe, Lanés, Luis Esteban Krause, Volcan, Matheus Vieira, Calviño, Pablo, Nielsen, Dalton, Duarte, Alejandro & Garcia, Graciela, 2018, Review of the family Rivulidae (Cyprinodontiformes, Aplocheiloidei) and a molecular and morphological phylogeny of the annual fish genus Austrolebias Costa 1998, Neotropical Ichthyology 16 (3), pp. 1-20 : 6

Melanorivulini. Costa (2011a) proposed this non-annual tribe based on a single synapomorphy related to the pigmentation pattern of the caudal fin of females. However, molecular analyses suggest that this may be a polyphyletic group ( Hrbek et al., 2004), with the sister taxa Anablepsoides Huber and Atlantirivulus Costa more closely related to Plesiolebiasine than to Cynodonichthys Meek and Melanorivulus Costa. Anablepsoides consists of ca. forty-two small to mediumsized species (30-60 mm SL) distributed in the Antilles, small tributaries of northeastern South America, and the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. It is diagnosed by the presence of scales on the whole ventral surface of the head. Atlantirivulus consists of eleven small to medium-sized (25-45 mm SL) species, distributed in coastal rivers of eastern to southern Brazil, diagnosed by disposition in zig-zag of the neuromasts of the infraorbital series and by the presence of a curved ventral process of the angulo-articular. Cynodonichthys consists of ca. twenty-seven medium to large-sized species (50-80 mm SL) distributed in the Caribbean and Pacific drainages of Central America and northwest South America. This genus lacks synapomorphies. Melanorivulus consists of ca. thirty-seven small to medium-sized species (20-40 mm SL), mainly distributed in central South America including La Plata, São Francisco, and Amazon river basins, and small coastal basins of northeast Brazil and it is diagnosed by the presence of black pigmentation on the margin of the caudal fin and on the distal margin of the dorsal and anal fins in females.