The fishes collected by G. A. Fischer in East Africa in 1883 and 1885/86

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century G. A. Fischer collected fishes in East Africa, more precisely in the modern countries Tanzania and Kenya. These fishes were the first specimens known to ichthyologists from some parts of these countries (e.g. from Lake Natron, Lake Victoria drainages). In this context the type localities and the status of Fischer's material are of special importance. Although modern ichthyologists working on East African fishes have been of the opinion that those localities are unknown this is not the case and the itineraries of Fischer are well‐documented. In this paper the types of Fischer's collections are redescribed and discussed, especially the Lake Victoria haplochromines, most of which were considered as lost. Two of these, Chromis nuchisquamulatus Hilgendorf, 1888 and Ctenochromis sauvagei Pfeffer, 1896, do not represent the biological species as previously believed, and two genera (Xystichromis and Ptyochromis) based by Greenwood (1980) on these taxa, are therefore of doubtful status. The taxonomic or biological species previously mistaken for Ctenochromis sauvagei Pfeffer, 1896, the nominal type of which was also collected by Fischer, is described as Haplochromis (Ptyochromis) fischeri spec. nov. The holotype of Ctenochromis sauvagei in fact corresponds to a species known as H. spec. “rockkribensis”. Because Ctenochromis sauvagei is the type species of Ptyochromis Greenwood, 1980 and because the holotype of this nominal species is different from the taxonomic species and actually belongs to Paralabidochromis Greenwood, 1956, according to article 70.3.2 of I.C.Z.N. the biological species H. (Ptyochromis) fischeri was chosen from the two species in question and designated the type species for the genus group Ptyochromis Greenwood, 1980, in order to retain the genus group Ptyochromis unchanged. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

A microsatellite-based genetic linkage map and putative sex-determining genomic regions in Lake Victoria cichlids

“…"rockkribensis" sensu Greenwood (1957) and Seehausen (1996) were claimed to be invalid by Seegers (2008). Seegers (2008) explained that holotype of H. sauvagei (Pfeffer, 1896) is not identical to previously recognized H. sauvagei (sensu Greenwood, 1957, Barel et al, 1977, and Seehausen, 1996 but identical to H. sp. "rockkribensis" (Seehausen, 1996).…”

“…"rockkribensis" (Seehausen, 1996). The previously recognized "H. sauvagei" was replaced to new species name Haplochromis fischeri (Seegers, 2008) and H. sp. "rockkribensis" was re-described as H. sauvagei (Pfeffer, 1896).…”

Divergent ontogenies of trophic morphology in two closely related haplochromine cichlids

“…The H. piceatus (Greenwood and Gee, 1969) and H. fischeri [Seegers, 2008;formerly H. sauvagei (Pfeffer, 1896)] specimens that founded the aquarium population stock used in this study were collected at the Mwanza Gulf in southern Lake Victoria and shipped to the Haplochromis Ecology Survey Team (HEST) (Van Oijen et al, 1981) laboratory at the University of Leiden during the 1980s. Since then they have been tank bred and reared for 29 generations.…”

Similar ecology, different morphology: Three new species of oral‐mollusc shellers from Lake Edward

“…All known species from the Lake Edward system have distinctly larger eyes than any formally described oral shellers from Lake Victoria (35.2%–41.6% v . 21.4%–33.4% L H ; Figure ; Greenwood, , , ; Seegers, ). All comparisons include specimens with similar standard lengths.…”

“…Within the LVRS, oral shellers are hitherto only known from Lake Victoria where 23 species with this ecology have been recorded, eight of which are formally described (Greenwood, , ; Seehausen, ; Seehausen et al ., ; Seegers, ). These species are morphologically very diverse, which is exemplified by their classification in five ‘genera sensu Greenwood ()’, i.e ., ‘ Hoplotilapia ’ Hilgendorf 1888, ‘ Macropleurodus ’ Regan 1922, ‘ Paralabidochromis ’ Greenwood 1956, ‘ Platytaeniodus ’ Boulenger 1906 and ‘ Ptyochromis ’ Greenwood 1980 (Greenwood, ; Slootweg, ).…”