Chromaphyosemion punctulatum Legros et al. 2005

Rainer Sonnenberg, 2007, Description of three new species of the genus Chromaphyosemion Radda, 1971 (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae) from the coastal plains of Cameroon with a preliminary review of the Chromaphyosemion splendopleure complex., Zootaxa 1591, pp. 1-38 : 29

Chromaphyosemion punctulatum Legros et al. 2005 .

Chromaphyosemion punctulatum was recently described based on color pattern and mitochondrial DNA data ( Legros et al. 2005). Unfortunately there are some differences between their diagnosis and distribution range of C. punctulatum and my data. According to my collections, C. punctulatum occurs in additional regions, particularly in the north of their distribution range. It is currently known from several localities along the road from Kribi to Campo , along the Campo - Afan Essokie road and the Massif des Mamelles (see Map 1). It includes the populations listed earlier ( Sonnenberg 2000) as separate forms C. sp. 04 and C. sp. Likado/Campo based on aquarium populations. After a study of wild caught specimens of several populations from this area it became evident that this earlier opinion had to be revised. The exclusion of the northern C. punctulatum populations (as C. sp. in the description [ Legros et al. 2005] and later as C. splendopleure [sensu Agnèse et al. 2006; Legros & Zentz 2007]) by its authors is not supported by comparing the diagnostic color characters of these populations. Most probably they only used the mtDNA clusters for species delimination, which turned out to be unreliable in this case as shown above. The C. punctulatum sample RS783 is from my northernmost collection of this species, approximately 20 km south of Kribi (CMM 18) near Mboro and has most probably a mitochondrial introgression from the southern clade (SC) but shows all diagnostic characters as described in the following (Fig. 24). C. punctulatum is diagnosable against the superficially similar looking C. melanogaster by its ventral orange color from head to bases of anal fin versus dark and greenish-grey; central part of anal fin in C. punctulatum greenish with orange border above submarginal red band versus a mostly uniform greenish central part (see Figs. 24, 27-29). It is slightly variable in its fin color and the amount of dots in unpaired fins with the most pronounced punctuation in the southern part of its distribution within the populations previously designated as C. sp. 04 . The center of the caudal and dorsal fins is always with small red dots, the anal fin in most specimens with dots on the posterior part of the fin, if streaks in unpaired fins, then only on marginal parts versus broader dark red dots and streaks in unpaired fins in C. melanogaster . It is distinguished from the closely related C. loennbergii , C. koungueense and C. omega by the dots in the caudal fin versus streaks in the major part of the caudal fin center. It is additionally distinguished from C. koungueense and C. omega by the red dots on the anal fin versus nearly no red markings on the anal fin or only a basal row of red dots in the latter two species.