Ptychochrominae

Ozouf-Costaz, Catherine, Coutanceau, Jean-Pierre, Bonillo, Céline, Mercot, Hervé, Fermon, Yves & Guidi-Rontani, Chantal, 2017, New insights into the chromosomal differentiation patterns among cichlids from Africa and Madagascar, Cybium 41 (1), pp. 35-43 : 39

Subfamily Ptychochrominae

The Ptychochrominae are endemic to Madagascar. According to Sparks and Smith (2004), this subfamily, which includes the genera Paratilapia , Oxylapia, Ptychochromides and Ptychochromis , is monophyletic, and is the sister group to the Cichlidae belonging to the East-African clade (Cich- linae + Pseudocrenilabrinae ). The Malagasy fishes have been poorly sampled and studied due to difficulties associ- ated with conducting comprehensive ichthyofaunal surveys in Madagascar (Sparks, 2004). Almost all cichlid species of Madagascar are endangered. Paratilapia polleni was com- mon and it seems that, in the past, several nominal species have been assigned to this species (for example, P. sp. “East coast”). The species is probably a species-complex and needs systematic revision. No chromosomal data were available for the Ptychochrominae and P. polleni is the first species to be karyotyped, using animals from an aquarium strain. The karyotype is composed of 44 chromosomes, including a large submetacentric pair, a large acrocentric pair and seven pairs of small m-sm chromosomes, suggesting that the major chromosomal rearrangements in this species involved pericentric inversions in small acrocentric chromosomes.