H. formosae was described in 2016 by Yamila Paula Cardoso, Florencia Brancolini, Ariel Paracampo, Marta Lizarralde, Raphael Covain, and Juan I. Montoya-Burgos alongside a redescription of its congener Hypostomus boulengeri based on morphological and molecular analyses.[2]FishBase does not list this species.
^ abCardoso, Y.P., Brancolini, F., Paracampo, A.H., Lizarralde, M.S., Covain, R., & Burgos, J.I. (2016). Hypostomus formosae, a new catfish species from the Paraguay River Basin with redescription of H. boulengeri (Siluriformes: Loricariidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters.