The subfamily Ancistrinae is one of the most diversified among Loricariidae fish, including approximately 200 species, distributed in 26 genera. These fish are easily recognized by the presence of bony plates arranged in series along the body, and by the antero-ventral position of the mouth. Their common names are acaris, bodós, cascudos and sucker-mouth. Species of the subfamily Ancistrinae comprise an important social-economic resource, constituting one of the most important commercial activities in Altamira-PA. In this study, the karyotype of nine species of fish belonging to four different genera (Baryancystrus, Parancistrus, Peckoltia and Ancistru,$) of the subfamily Ancistrinae were analyzed through conventional (Giemsa, C-band and Ag-NORs) and fluorochrome (Chromomycin A3) techniques. The species of the genus Baryancistrus showed a diploid number 2n= 52, and FN=104. NORs were found in an interstitial position of the short arm of a biarmed chromosome. The species B. aff niveatus had large blocks of constitutive heterochromatin, rich in G-C. This character was considered apomorphic. Hence, the karyotype of this species was considered the most derived among the species of this genus. Genus Parancistrus includes species with a karyotypic structure very similar to the one found in Baryancistrus, and the position of NORs could be considered as a possible apomorphy shared by these two genera. The species of the genus Peckoltia showed a diploid number with 52 chromosomes, and FN=102, with large heterochromatic blocks in ali the species. These blocks comprised almost ali the long arras of some submetacentric and subtelocentric chromosome pairs, which could be considered as a possible apomorphy shared by the species of this group. NORs were found in the long arm of a submetacentric pair in P. vittata, and in the maximum of three chromosomes in Peckoltia spl and Peckoltia sp2. Ancistrus ranunculus showed the most derived karyotype among all the species analyzed in this study. This karyotype had 48 chromosomes and FN=80. Cytogenetic analyses so far suggest that inversions were the most important rearrangement that occurred during the chromosomal diversification of Ancistrinae, except in Ancistrus ranunculus, in which Robertsonian rearrangements were also observed.
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