Author: Valenciennes, 1847
FBname: Twospot lebiasina
Remark: No recent study. The body is stocky with a dark spot just behind the head and another at the base of the caudal fin. All lebiasinids are mainly insectivorous feeding generally near the surface of the water. <i>Lebiasina bimaculata</i> especially has been used in the control of mosquitoes. Thus it has been introduced into regions where it was not native.  Its original distribution was in the coastal streams between the Lima area of central Peru north to northern Ecuador. It also occurs inland at higher elevations in the Cajamarca region of central Peru.  Pearson (1937: 89) remarks that this fish can live for a long time in a minimum quantity of water and that pre Inca people could easily have carried this fish from the coast up into the Cajamarca valley where it has adapted and spread into the upper Marañon River.  Marilyn Weitzman, pers. comm., Eschmeyer, 1998:229; Ortega and Vari, 1986:10.
Comments: Used as a mosquito control (Ref. 26543).