Engraulicypris Guenther , 1894

Riddin, Megan A., Bills, I. Roger & Villet, Martin H., 2016, Phylogeographic, morphometric and taxonomic re-evaluation of the river sardine, Mesobolabrevianalis (Boulenger, 1908) (Teleostei, Cyprinidae, Chedrini), ZooKeys 641, pp. 121-150 : 130

Engraulicypris Guenther, 1894

Engraulicypris Günther, 1894: 626 (type species: Engraulicypris pinguis Günther, 1894 (= Barilius sardella Günther, 1868: Lévêque and Daget 1984, Eschmeyer et al. 2016))

= Mesobola Howes, 1984: 168 syn. n. (type species: Neobola brevianalis Boulenger, 1908)

Diagnosis.

With the synonymisation of Mesobola and Engraulicypris , Günther’s (1894) diagnosis of Engraulicypris must be modified to include the species assigned to Mesobola . Engraulicypris is a genus of moderately small African chedrin barbs (sensu Tang et al. 2010; Liao et al. 2011, 2012) identified by a lack of a scaly lobe at the base of the pelvic or pectoral fin; a large mouth reaching the anterior border of the orbit or beyond; a dorsal fin origin originating behind midpoint of standard length, more or less above the origin of the anal fin; a pectoral fin not reaching the origin of the anal fin; and body colouration lacking vertical bars or bands. Osteological characters are discussed by Liao et al. (2011, 2012) for Mesobola and by Liao et al. (2012) for Engraulicypris .

Live colouration.

(Fig. 6). Body without vertical bars or bands.

Etymology.

Engraulicypris alludes to the anchovy-like form (eggraulis, -eos [eggraulis, -eos]; Greek) of these relatives of the carp (kyprinos [kyprinos]; Greek).

Distribution.

Southern and Eastern Africa.