Chortiheros wesseli
| Chortiheros wesseli | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Chortiheros | ||||||||||||
| Říčan & Dragová , 2016 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Chortiheros wesseli | ||||||||||||
| ( Miller , 1996) |
Chortiheros wesseli is a freshwater fish from the family of cichlids , which are endemic in a few fast-flowing rivers (Río Papaloteca, Rio Cangrejal and Rio Danto) on the Caribbean coast of Honduras occurs.
features
Chortiheros wesseli is elongated and reaches a length of about 8 cm. The animals are light, beige, yellowish or whitish in color. Characteristic is a dark longitudinal band that extends from the edge of the upper gill cover to the base of the tail and a strip between the eyes and the mouth. Cross ties are completely absent. During the breeding season the animals get a striking contrasting coloration with a dark belly and light body sides, similar to the species of the genus Herichthys .
The meristic (countable) characteristics that distinguish the species from other Central American cichlids include the increased number of caudal vertebrae (more than 17), the increased number of vertebrae in the tail stalk (more than 4), the high number of scales along the sideline (32, of which 13 along the lower sideline), the high number of dorsal fin spines (more than 17) and the high number of pectoral fin rays (15).
Chortiheros wesseli differs from Theraps , to this genus, by the brood color, by the protruding lower jaw, the terminal, large and wide mouth (slightly below, narrow and narrow with Theraps ), by the teeth (conical with Chortiheros , labiolingually flattened with flat tips in Theraps ) and through only 13 trunk vertebrae (15 in Theraps ).
Way of life
Chortiheros wesseli has only a small distribution area and lives in rivers with high flow speeds and a subsoil of sand, gravel and rubble.
Systematics
The species was described in 1996 by RR Miller in the aquarium trade journal Tropical Fish Hobbyist under the name Theraps wesseli and named after the collector of the type specimens. In 2016 the genus Chortiheros was introduced, with Chortiheros wesseli as the only species. The genus name is made up of Chortí and Heros . The Chortí are an indigenous people in southeastern Guatemala, northwestern Honduras and northern El Salvador, Heros is a genus of cichlids. Chortiheros is the sister genus of Petenia .
literature
- Horst Linke, Wolfgang Staek: American cichlids II, large cichlids. Tetra-Verlag, Bissendorf 1997, ISBN 3-89745-101-8 , pages 416-417.
- Říčan, O., Piálek, L., Dragová, K. & Novák, J. (2016): Diversity and evolution of the Middle American cichlid fishes (Teleostei: Cichlidae) with revised classification . Vertebrate Zoology, 66 (1): 1-102.
Web links
- Chortiheros wesseli on Fishbase.org (English)