Enteromius pinnimaculatus sp. nov. (Cypriniformes: Cyprinidae) from southern Gabon

We present and describe a new species of Enteromius, adding to the 16 species of Enteromius currently recorded from Gabon, West Africa. This new species is distinguished from all other Gabonese Enteromius by the presence of several distinct spots on the dorsal fin in combination with three or four r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of fish biology Vol. 96; no. 5; pp. 1218 - 1233
Main Authors Mipounga, Hans Kevin, Cutler, Joseph, Mve Beh, Jean Hervé, Adam, Benjamin, Sidlauskas, Brian L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2020
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Subjects
Allometry
Animal morphology
Barbels
biodiversity
Biometry
central Africa
Collections
conservation
endemic
Enteromius
Environmental Sciences
Fins
Fish
Length
morphometrics
New species
Rivers
systematics
Tributaries
Vertebrae
Gabon
allometry
conservation
biodiversity
central Africa
endemic
systematics
morphometrics
Conservation
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Summary:We present and describe a new species of Enteromius, adding to the 16 species of Enteromius currently recorded from Gabon, West Africa. This new species is distinguished from all other Gabonese Enteromius by the presence of several distinct spots on the dorsal fin in combination with three or four round spots on the flanks. In Africa, it is superficially similar to Enteromius walkeri and with which it shares an unusual allometry in that the proportional length of the barbels decreases as the fish grows. Nevertheless, one can distinguish these species by vertebral number, maximum standard length, the length of the anterior barbels, the length of the caudal peduncle and in most specimens, the number of lateral‐line and circumpeduncular scales. These two species also inhabit widely separated drainages, with E. walkeri occurring in coastal drainages of Ghana including the Pra and Ankobra Rivers and the new species occurring in tributaries of the Louetsi and Bibaka Rivers of Gabon, which are part of the Ogowe and Nyanga drainages, respectively. Despite extensive collections in those drainages the new species is known from only two localities, suggesting the importance of conservation of its known habitat.
Bibliography:Funding information
We gratefully acknowledge the financial and logistical support of The Nature Conservancy in Africa. E. Benjaminson and M. Dana at the Gabon‐Oregon Center for Transnational Research provided additional funding that supported the travel of HKM, JHMB and other Gabonese researchers to study at the Oregon State Ichthyology Collection.
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ISSN:0022-1112
1095-8649
DOI:10.1111/jfb.13995