Vertebrate Zoology 59(1): 25-29, doi:

Egg surface morphology in the Neotropical seasonal killifish genus Leptolebias (Teleostei: Aplocheiloidei: Rivulidae)

Wilson José Eduardo Moreira da Costa^‡§, FABIANO Leal

‡ Rio de Janeiro, Brazil§ Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Corresponding author: Wilson Costa ( wcosta@acd.ufrj.br )

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Costa WJEM, Leal F (2009) Egg surface morphology in the Neotropical seasonal killifish genus Leptolebias (Teleostei: Aplocheiloidei: Rivulidae). Vertebrate Zoology 59(1): 25-29

Abstract

The egg surface of four species of the South American genus Leptolebias is examined under scanning electron microscopy. Two distinct morphological patterns are described: surface reticulate, lumen punctate, in L. marmoratus, L. aureoguttatus, and L. itanhaensis; and, surface insulate and not punctate, in L. citrinipinnis. Both the punctate lumen and the insulate pattern are features fi rstly recorded for rivulids. Phylogenetic inferences about evolution of unique characters states found are not postulated by the absence of data on chorion morphology for two congeners possibly extinct (L. splendens and L. opalescens). Mushroom-like projections about regularly distributed on egg surface were found in all examined species.

Keywords

Killifishes, Seasonal fishes, Leptolebias, Egg Morphology, Chorion.