Chiloglanis brevibarbis Boulenger 1902

Schmidt, Ray C., Bart Jr, Henry L. & Nyingi, Wanja Dorothy, 2015, Two new species of African suckermouth catfishes, genus Chiloglanis (Siluriformes: Mochokidae), from Kenya with remarks on other taxa from the area, Zootaxa 4044 (1), pp. 45-64 : 60

Chiloglanis brevibarbis Boulenger 1902

Described from the Tana River basin, Chiloglanis brevibarbis occurs throughout the Athi and Tana River basins in Central Kenya ( Fig. 1 ). This species in found in a variety of habitat types, although it is usually associated with or near flowing water. Most commonly utilized habitats are rocks and small boulders in flowing water, this species is also found near woody debris or exposed roots along the river bank. In the Athi River at Kibwesi, 141 specimens were collected in emergent stands of vegetation in the middle of the sandy channel.

Chiloglanis brevibarbis is the only species of Chiloglanis throughout its range except in the Tsavo River and potentially in other streams of the middle Athi. In the Tsavo River this species is sympatric with an undescribed Chiloglanis sp. that is sister to C. deckenii from the Pangani River. Chiloglanis brevibarbis is distinguished from other Kenyan species in having fewer mandibular teeth, exposed length of mandibular teeth greater than row width, and in possessing 4–5 rows of well-developed premaxillary teeth in large ovoid tooth pads ( Fig. 6 ). Morphological variation is observed between Athi and Tana River populations ( Fig. 2 , also noted in Whitehead 1958) though biotic dispersal events in the upper reaches of the drainages have likely contributed to admixture between the populations resulting in incomplete lineage sorting ( Schmidt et al. 2014). Little is known of ecology and life history of this species. Morphometric measurements and meristic counts of C. brevibarbis populations are found in Table 4 .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Collection localities of Chiloglanis specimens included in this study and type localities of new species described herein: Chiloglanis deckenii (triangle), C. brevibarbis (circle), C. somereni (square), C. kerioensis (type locality—asterisk, paratypes—cross), and C. devosi (type locality—star). Drainage boundaries denoted by white lines.

FIGURE 2. Plot of PC 1 to PC 2 from principal components analysis of the residuals of 45 linear measurements regressed against standard length of 169 Chiloglanis specimens. Polygons outline individuals from each species or population. Two new Chiloglanis species are outlined in bold with holotypes (star). The undescribed taxon from the Tsavo River is outlined in hash line. Measurements contributing most to variation along PC 1 and PC 2 are shown.

FIGURE 6. Lateral and ventral views of Chiloglanis deckenii (A), TU 203003, Kenya, Coast Province, Lumi River at Taveta Township: and Chiloglanis brevibarbis (B), NMK FW / 2732 / 1 - 5, Kenya, Eastern Province, Ragati River at Kwamora area off Sagana-Karatina Road. Scale bar equals 1 cm. Photographs by R. C. Schmidt.