Fundulopanchax kamdemi (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae) a new species from Korup National Park, western Cameroon.
Author
Christian Akum
Author
Rainer Sonnenberg
Author
Jouke R. van der Zee
Author
Rudolf H. Wildekamp
text
Zootaxa
2007
1532
41
49
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:8479C36A-A987-4C1F-A3A0-D11D7597BEAE
journal article
z01532p041
8479C36A-A987-4C1F-A3A0-D11D7597BEAE
[[
Fundulopanchax Myers
]]
Fundulopanchax
was originally described by Myers (1924) as a subgenus in
Aphyosemion Myers, 1924
but his diagnostic characters were not adopted in subsequent revisions. On the basis of two synapomorphic characters, Parenti (1981) recognized
Fundulopanchax
as a monophyletic sister group to
Nothobranchius Peters, 1868
and consequently designated
Fundulopanchax
as a genus. Van der Zee and Wildekamp (1994) accepted the generic status of
Fundulopanchax
, but the value of Parenti’s (1981) diagnostic characters was disputed. Additionally, they found four diagnostic characters for the genus
Fundulopanchax
: chorionic structure (puncti), anal-fin skeleton (lateral processes on anal radialia reduced), otolith morphology and caudal peduncle squamation (16 or more scales, except
Paludopanchax Radda, 1977
) (see Van der Zee & Wildekamp, 1994). Murphy and Collier (1999), using mitochondrial DNA sequences, corroborated the generic status of
Fundulopanchax
, but they did not, in most cases, find correlation between the species groups as proposed by Radda (1977) on morphological arguments. In Murphy and Collier (1999),
Aphyosemion
is the sister group to
Fundulopanchax
, whereas in a second molecular genetic study, based on more limited material and focused on the evolution of diapause in New World Rivulidae, by Hrbek and Larson (1999),
Aphyosemion
is the sister group to a clade comprised of
Fundulopanchax
and
Nothobranchius
(Fig. 1). Morphological characters discriminate between
Aphyosemion
and
Fundulopanchax
but it should be the subject of a future study if they are apomorphies of a monophyletic group
Fundulopanchax
, or if in a broader study with the remaining African Nothobranchiidae, they will be assessed as plesiomorphic characters.
The distribution of
Fundulopanchax
ranges from
Cote
d’Ivoire to Equatorial Guinea with the highest species diversity in southeastern Nigeria and adjacent southwestern Cameroon (species numbers and distribution see Huber, 2000; Wildekamp, 1996).