Herichthys pame De la Maza-Benignos & Lozano-Vilano, 2013

Mejía, Omar, Pérez-Miranda, Fabián, León-Romero, Yatzil, Soto-Galera, Eduardo & Luna, Efraín de, 2015, Morphometric variation of the Herichthys bartoni (Bean, 1892) species group (Teleostei: Cichlidae): How many species comprise H. labridens (Pellegrin, 1903)?, Neotropical Ichthyology 13 (1), pp. 61-76 : 71-72

Herichthys pame De la Maza-Benignos & Lozano-Vilano, 2013

Herichthys pame De la Maza-Benignos & Lozano-Vilano, 2013: 112-114 [original description].

Nosferatu pame . -De la Maza-Benignos et al., 2014: in press [citation].

Diagnosis. There are no unique autapomorphies that allow us to distinguish Herichthys pame from the rest of the species of the group. Similar to H. steindachneri , the blotches of the body usually extend to the opercle and to the posterior end of the eye, while in the other species, the blotches do not extend beyond the opercle. This species could be distinguished from it sympatric species H. steindachneri by a small head, which reaches at most 86% of the length in comparison with the height at the basis of the pelvic fins, in contrast with H. steindachneri , in which this proportion is greater than 89.6%.

Description. Morphometric and meristic data are summarized in Tables 3-4.

Color in life. Body yellow to light brown, sometimes green, darker in the dorsal that vanishes to almost white in the ventral region. Dark blotches that extend from the end of the eye to the caudal fin, blotches in the second half of the body could form four to seven vertical bars, head with brown or black dots that does not extend beyond the pectoral fins, pectoral and pelvic fins yellow, while caudal and anal fin usually light brown or red, in some specimens the dorsal, caudal and anal fin with speckled, red to purple axil mark present.

Color in alcohol. Body gray to light brown, vanishing to yellow or white to the ventral region, fins turn whitish, in some specimens, margin of the dorsal fin turn black, axial mark could disappear.

Distribution. Endemic of río Gallinas and its tributaries.

Remarks. According to the original description, this species could be separated from the other species of the genus by a small eye diameter (mean 23%, SD 1%) and a long snout (mean 39%, SD 2%), among other traits. Our results indicated that none of these characters could be diagnostic because a small eye diameter is also present in H. molango and a long snout is also present in both H. pantostictus and H. molango . Nevertheless, this species is clearly separated from the rest in the canonical variable analysis derived from the analysis of geometric morphometrics of body shape ( Fig. 5 ). Herichthys pame was originally considered a geographic variant of H. labridens by Taylor & Miller (1983, Fig. 4 ), although Miller et al. (2005) later reconsidered and state that this species represents an undescribed species. Although De la Maza-Benignos & Lozano-Vilano (2013) state that this species was recovered as a sister taxon of H. steindachneri by Hulsey et al. (2004), the DNA barcoding analysis performed in this study indicates that both species share some haplotypes and were undistinguished.

Material examined. Mexico: Cascadas de Tamasopo, SLP. ENCB-P P4758, 11, 88.3-141.2 mm SL, Cascadas de Tamasopo, SLP. ENCB-P P6371, 5, 64.6-101.5 mm SL, Puente El Ahogado, SLP. ENCB-P P6372, 5, 62.4-121.8 mm SL.

Figures

Fig. 5. Canonical variance analysis derived from the geometric morphometric analysis of the species included in the Herichthys bartoni species group. A) canonical variate 1 and 2 for the head, B) canonical variate 2 and 3 for the head, C) canonical variate 1 and 2 for the body, D) canonical variate 2 and 3 for the body. Symbology: Blue: H. bartoni, Red: H. cf. labridens, Green: H. labridens, Violet: H. molango, Black: H. pame, Gray: H. pantostictus, Brown: H. steindachneri.

Fig. 4. Canonical variance analysis derived from the discriminant function analysis of the species included in the Herichthys bartoni species group. A) Meristic data B) Morphometric data adjusted by the method of Mossimann C) Morphometric data adjusted as proportions. Symbology: Blue: H. bartoni, Red: H. cf. labridens, Green: H. labridens, Violet: H. molango, Black: H. pame, Gray: H. pantostictus, Brown: H. steindachneri.