New Species of Cyphotilapia (Perciformes: Cichlidae) from Lake Tanganyika, Africa

A second species of Cyphotilapia (Cichlidae) is described from Lake Tanganyika. The new species is clearly distinct from Cyphotilapia frontosa in having three scale rows between the upper and lower lateral lines at center of body (vs two rows in C. frontosa). Furthermore, a greater number of scales on the longitudinal line (34–36 vs 33–35), fewer outer teeth on the upper jaw (31–52 vs 39–62), higher body (43.3–51.2% SL vs 38.2–46.5%), longer predorsal (37.5–44.9% SL vs 37.1–42.7% SL), longer dorsal-fin base (57.1–64.6% SL vs 53.8–60.9% SL) and longer pectoral fin (36.0–47.2% SL vs 31.3–41.7%) also distinguish the former species. The distribution of the new species is restricted to the southern half of Lake Tanganyika, whereas C. frontosa is allopatrically distributed in the northern half of the lake.

Fig. 1.

Lake Tanganyika, showing sampling localities of Cyphotilapia gibberosa (first variation, solid circles), and six- (second variation, open triangles) and seven-band types (third variation, open circle) of Cyphotilapia frontosa. Under lines indicate type localities. Sketches of fish and squamation patterns indicate numbers of bands on body and scale rows between upper and lower lateral lines, respectively

Fig. 2.

Holotype of Cyphotilapia gibberosa, HUMZ 157314, male, 154.6 mm SL

Fig. 4.

Lower pharyngeal bone of Cyphotilapia gibberosa, HUMZ 182845, paratype, 145.9 mm SL

Fig. 3.

Photograph of (A–C) males and (D–E) females of Cyphotilapia gibberosa. (A) HUMZ 182844, paratype, 210.1 mm SL, (B) HUMZ 157314, holotype, 154.6 mm SL, (C) HUMZ 122873, paratype, 91.5 mm SL, (D) MRAC A2–33-P2, paratype, 122.6 mm SL, and (E) HUMZ 157313, paratype, 66.2 mm SL

Contributor Notes

(TT) Lake Biwa Museum, 1091 Oroshimo, Kusatsu, Shiga 525–0001, Japan; and (KN) Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity, Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3–1–1 Minato, Hakodate 041–8611, Japan. (TT)tetsumi@lbm.go.jp; and (KN)nakaya@fish.hokudai.ac.jp Send reprint requests to TT.

Accepted: 04 Jun 2003