Abstract
A new species of cichlid fish, Lethrinops chilingali is described from specimens collected from Lake Chilingali, near Nkhotakota, Malawi. It is assigned to the genus Lethrinops based on the form of the lower jaw dental arcade and by the absence of traits diagnostic of the phenotypically similar Ctenopharynx, Taeniolethrinops and Tramitichromis. It also lacks the enlarged cephalic lateral line canal pores found in species of Alticorpus and Aulonocara. The presence of a broken horizontal stripe on the flanks of females and immature/non-territorial males of Lethrinops chilingali distinguishes them from all congeners, including Lethrinops lethrinus, in which the stripe is typically continuous. Lethrinops chilingali also has a relatively shorter snout, shorter lachrymal bone and less ventrally positioned mouth than Lethrinops lethrinus. It appears likely that Lethrinops chilingali is now extinct in the wild, as this narrow endemic species has not been positively recorded in the natural environment since 2009. Breeding populations remain in captivity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 515-530 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Zootaxa |
| Volume | 5318 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 21 Jul 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We are grateful to the Malawi Government Department of Fisheries for collaboration and permits. Sampling and specimen collection on Lake Chilingali in 2004 was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council award NER/A/S/2003/00362, and in 2009 by a student expedition grant from Zoological Society of London to Gavan Cooke, Dave Bavin, Lucy Ferris, Cat Griggs and Bev Stubbs, to whom we are grateful for help in specimen collection. We thank Rupert Collins, Oliver Crimmen, James Maclaine and Simon Loader at the Natural history Museum in London for helping us with access to specimens, finding old field notes and cataloguing new material. We are grateful to Jay Stauffer and Roger Bills for photos of the SAIAB specimens and their labels, to hannes Svardal for information about the 2022 expedition and to Alexandra Tyers and Dave Bavin for photographs of Lethrinops lethrinus in the aquarium and field respectively.
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© 2023 Magnolia Press.