Hemipsilichthys cameroni, photo by K.S. Cummings	Hemipsilichthys nudulus, from Reis and Pereira 1999
Hemipsilichthys gobio, photo by J.W. Armbruster	Hemipsilichthys vestigipinnis, photo by K.S. Cummings

H. bahianus (Gosline 1947)
H. cameroni (Steindachner 1907)
H. calmoni Steindachner 1908 2
H. cerosus Miranda Ribeiro 1951
H. garbei Ihering 1911
H. gobio (Lütken 1874)
H. luderwaldti (Miranda Ribeiro 1918)
H. nudulus Reis and Pereira 1999
H. regani (Giltay 1936)  3
H. splendens Bizerril 1995
H. steindachneri Miranda Ribeiro 1918
H. stephanus Oliveira and Oyakawa 19990
H. vestigipinnis Pereira and Reis 1992

1 Additional species have recently been described, but I do not yet have the publications or names.
2 An unnecessary correction for H. cameroni.  Considered to be a synonym of H. cameroni.
3 Considered a synonym of H. cameroni by Pereira and Reis (1992)

Hemipsilichthys are small- to medium-sized loricariids.  Color pattern is usually dark brown and mottled with the abdomen white (there is mottling on the lower surface of the caudal peduncle in some species).  Abdomen naked.  Caudal fin straight, angled posteroventrally to slightly emarginate.  Four or more predorsal plates.  At least a single column of plates on the caudal peduncle where there are only three rows of plates. Canal plate large with the ventral border deflected under the head.  Eyes typically small.  Dorsal fin short, never reaching the adipose fin.  In one species, H. vestigipinnis, the adipose fin is nearly absent.

The following does not apply to Hemipsilichthys gobio. Hemipsilichthys can be distinguished from all but Isbrueckerichthys, Delturus, Pogonopoma, Pseudorinelepis, and Upsilodus and some Loricariinae by a combination of a lack of evertible cheek plates and elongated odontodes along the snout margin in breeding males.  Hemipsilichthys differs from Isbrueckerichthys by lacking small, embedded plates on the abdomen, from Delturus by lacking a postdorsal ridge, from Pogonopoma and Pseudorinelepis by lacking plates on the abdomen and having three (vs. five or more) rows of plates in at least one column on the caudal peduncle, and from Loricariinae by having an adipose fin and lacking an elongate, flattened caudal peduncle that is rectangular in cross-section.  Non-breeding males, females, and juveniles can be separated from Pareiorhina by the presence of an adipose fin, from Upsilodus, Corymbophanes, and Delturus by a lack of a postdorsal ridge, from Kronichthys by having a wider body (vs. cigar-shaped) and by having the sphenotic in contact with the sixth infraorbital externally, from Neoplecostomus and the Rhinelepis group, by a lack of plates on the abdomen, from most the Rhinelepis group, the Pterygoplichthys group, and Hypostomus by having more than three predorsal plates and a rectangular (vs. triangular) dorsal fin spinelet, and from the Pterygoplichthys group and Ancistrini by a lack of evertible odontodes on the cheek.

Reis, R.E. and E.H.L. Pereira.  1999.  Hemipsilichthys nudulus, a new, uniquely-plated species of loricariid catfish from the rio Araranguá basin, Brazil (Teleostei: Siluriformes).  Ichthyol. Explor. Freshwaters: 10:45-51.