Vertebrate Zoology 69(1): 103-110, doi: 10.26049/VZ69-1-2019-05

Apistogramma psammophila – a new geophagine dwarf cichlid (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from the Rio Atabapo drainage in Colombia and Venezuela

Wolfgang Staeck, Ingo Schindler

Corresponding author: Wolfgang Staeck ( staeck@googlemail.com )

Corresponding author: Ingo Schindler ( ingoschindler@web.de )

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: Staeck W, Schindler I (2019) Apistogramma psammophila – a new geophagine dwarf cichlid (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from the Rio Atabapo drainage in Colombia and Venezuela. Vertebrate Zoology 69(1): 103-110. https://doi.org/10.26049/VZ69-1-2019-05

Abstract

Apistogramma psammophila sp. n. is described from the lower Rio Atabapo drainage in Colombia (Departamento Guainía) and Venezuela (Estado Amazonas). It can be distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of characters: Two dark horizontal stripes on body side, two pectoral spots, suborbital stripe becoming much wider ventrally, and no caudal spot. In adult males soft dorsal and anal fins each with long filamentous prolongation almost reaching posterior margin of caudal fin, and pelvic fins with filamentous extension, nearly reaching middle of anal-fin base. It is most similar to Apistogramma diplotaenia Kullander, 1987, but differs from this species by an irregular pattern of 6 – 8 short vertical dark bar-like markings below the lower lateral stripe, and adult males with reddish area on cheek and chest between eye and pectoral axilla and distinctly lanceolate caudal fin.

Keywords

Apistogramma diplotaenia, Cichlinae, Departamento Guainía, Estado Amazonas, Geophagini, ichthyology, new species, Orinoco basin, taxonomy.