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Tribe Ectodini Synopsis of Ectodus Boulenger, 1898 |
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A cura di Thomas Andersen, 2005.
Ultimo aggiornamento in data08-Nov-2005 |
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| Illustration of Ectodus descampsii Boulenger, 1898 as it appeared in the original description – reprinted in Poll 1986 |
Lake Tanganyika
Pelmatochromis stappersii Boulenger, 1914
Apparently two Ectodus species are present in Lake Tanganyika; one distributed in the southern part of the Lake and one in the northern. One of these was described by Boulenger in 1898 and one is a potentially un-described species.
Which of the two Ectodus species Boulenger originally described in 1898 is surrounded with much confusion, as the exact find locality of the holotype are not known, according to Maréchal & Poll (1991) being just labeled “Lake Tanganyika” by Boulenger. Hitherto it has been assumed that the northern form was the true Ectodus descampsi and the southern form a closely related species that in the literature has been known under the name E. sp. “descampsii ndole”, since it first was recognized as a potentially undescribed species by Konings (1988; 1998). Recently Sébastien Verne has examined the collections at the Royal Africa Museum in Tervuren, Belgium and has confirmed that two species of Ectodus are present and quite surprisingly, that the holotype corresponds with the southern form (Verne 2001) – this topic is addressed in a separate paper.
Sturmbauer & Meyer´s molecular analyses (1993) showed that Ectodus may form a subclade together with Lestradea, Cunningtonia and Aulonocranus in the Ophthalmotilapia-clade, which also consists of the genera Cyathopharynx and Ophthalmotilapia. This has been confirmed by a recent molecular work, which has also shown that the genus Ectodus is the most ancestral branch in this subclade and confirmed the existence of two Ectodus species (Koblmüller et al. 2004).
Note: The above listed distinctive characters from Poll 1986 may in fact be refering to the undescribed northern form.
© Copyright 2005 Thomas Andersen, all rights reserved
Citazione:
Andersen, Thomas. (Novembre 08, 2005). "Synopsis of Ectodus Boulenger, 1898". The Cichlid Room Companion. URL consultato in data Maggio 19, 2013, da: http://www.cichlidae.com/section.php?id=102&lang=it.