Pelvicachromis humilis (Boulenger, 1916)

Anton Lamboj, 2004, Pelvicachromis signatus and Pelvicachromis rubrolabiatus, two new cichlid species (Teleostei, Perciformes) from Guinea, West Africa., Zootaxa 454, pp. 1-12 : 2

[[ Pelvicachromis humilis (Boulenger, 1916) ]]

Within the genus, Pelvicachromis humilis (Boulenger, 1916) differs from congeners in having a straight and sloping dorsal head profile (vs. rounded, decurved), a lower supraoccipital crest, an ethmoverine skull region slightly longer and sloping at a lower angle, a narrower interorbital region and a higher vertebral count of 27 with 15 abdominal centra (vs. 13 or 14) (Greenwood, 1987).

Additionally, Stiassny (pers. comm.) observed, as an additional difference between Pelvicachromis humilis and congeners, that P. humilis has 2 contiguous tubular infraorbital ossicles instead of 3 with a gap between the 2nd and 3rd.

In 1967 and 1968, specimens of a new cichlid fish from the Kolente region in Guinea were deposited and labeled as Pelvicachromis spec. “Bandi” at ZMA and MRAC. Thys van den Audenaerde (unpublished manuscript, MRAC) noticed similarities, but also clear color differences between these specimens and P. humilis . From the late 1980´s on, additional specimens of this species were imported for commercial trade. Later on, a second species from Guinea -possibly also from the Kolente region -was imported for trade and named as P. spec. “Bandi 2.” This new species showed similarities to P. humilis and P. spec. “Bandi” , but had differences in color patterns of both sexes and shape of the male caudal fin (Linke & Staeck, 2002). No precise locality data for this second species were available until collections were undertaken in Guinea by S. Sidibe in 2002. The aim of this paper is to describe these two new species.