Amatitlania

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Amatitlania
Zebra cichlid (Amatitlania nigrofasciata)

Zebra cichlid ( Amatitlania nigrofasciata )

Systematics
Ovalentaria
Order : Cichliformes
Family : Cichlids (Cichlidae)
Subfamily : Cichlinae
Tribe : Heroini
Genre : Amatitlania
Scientific name
Amatitlania
Schmitter-Soto , 2007
Amatitlania kanna
Amatitlania nanoluteus
Amatitlania siquia

Amatitlania ( Syn .: Bussingius Schmitter-Soto, 2007 ) is a genus of cichlids that occurs in Central America from the Pacific side of southern Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador to Honduras and Costa Rica (Pacific and Caribbean sides) and to western Panama .

features

Amatitlania species have a relatively stocky body with a short tail and are therefore adapted to life in stagnant and poorly flowing water. They are a maximum of ten centimeters long (females stay smaller) and their body height is about half the standard length . Characteristic of the genus is the pattern with dark horizontal stripes on the sides of the body, a feature that Amatitlania shares with the closely related genera Cryptoheros , Hypsophrys and Neetroplus . Compared to Cryptoheros , Amatitlania species have one less cross band on the sides of the body. In Cryptoheros, the fifth band is usually divided into two, and the back branch of the fifth band is most heavily pigmented and significantly darker than the others. In young fish of Amatitlania and the adults of most species, the fourth band is the darkest. In the fully grown specimens of some Amatitlania species, all the bandages are equally dark. Sexually mature females of Amatitlania have a patch of golden or copper-colored iridescent scales on the sides of the body or the throat and abdomen are intensely bluish (in A. septemfasciata and A. sajica ). This missing feature of Cryptoheros is related to the active role that the Amatitlania females take on during courtship. Compared to Hypsophrys and Neetroplus , the Amatitlania species are stockier (more adapted to life in still waters) and have fewer vertebrae and scales in the longitudinal direction. The Amatitlania species differ from Archocentrus in their sexual dimorphism in terms of size and color, courtship behavior, the rounded snout (slightly pointed in Archocentrus ) and a laterally less flattened body.

The mouth is small and the teeth in the lower jaw are perpendicular to the body axis; both are considered typical of species that feed on detritivor or herbivorous diet. The lower jaw is just as long or shorter than the upper jaw. The jaw teeth are conical and pointed with a labiolingual flattened tip. The teeth of the second and third rows of teeth are relatively large. Amatitlania shares the head morphology with Cryptoheros and Hypsophrys and in combination with some characteristics regarding the unpaired fins it is unique among the Central American cichlids. These include an increased number of anal pterygiophores from the first hemalia (2 to 3), an increased number of anal spines (7 to 9) compensated by a decreased number of anal soft rays (less than 8) and an increased number of caudal rays (17 to 19) .

Systematics

The genus Amatitlania was introduced in 2007 by the Mexican ichthyologist Juan Jacobo Schmitter-Soto. Type species is the zebra cichlid ( Amatitlania nigrofasciata ), which is very well known from aquaristics , Terra typica is the Amatitlán lake, which is also Terra typica of the type species. Within the Heronini, the genus Amatitlania belongs to the Amphilophines (closer relationship to Amphilophus ) and forms a trichotomy with Cryptoheros and a clade formed by Hypsophrys and Neetroplus .

species

The genus Amatitlania currently consists of eight species. In addition to the three original ones (the fourth, Amatitlania coatepeque Schmitter-Soto, was synonymous with Amatitlania nigrofasciata in 2014 ), the five species from the subgenus Bussingius (genus Cryptoheros ) were added in mid-2016 .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Juan J. Schmitter-Soto (2007): A systematic revision of the genus Archocentrus (Perciformes: Cichlidae), with the description of two new genera and six new species. Zootaxa No. 1603: 1-76.
  2. ↑ McMahan, CD, WA Matamoros, E. Barrazo, J. Kutz & P. ​​Chakrabarty (2014) Taxonomic status of the Lago Coatepeque endemic convict cichlid Amatitlania coatepeque (Teleostei: Cichlidae). Copeia 2014 (No. 4): 633-638

Web links

Commons : Amatitlania  - collection of images, videos and audio files