Re: Culled?

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Ken Laidlaw wrote:

> > Now for the next Aqualog questions.
> > What species is shown on the bottom right, page 51 (S03715-3)?
> A.eunotus?

Close, it's in the eunotus-complex. This fish doesn't show the split on the bottom of
Bar 6 that is diagnostic of A. eunotus. Hint: It's a highly variable species in both
color and body shape.

> > What species is shown on the second row, page 59 (S03835-3) AND third row, page
> > 62 (S03870-4)? Do they look the same to you?
> Yes same fish, don't know what though.

It looks like it belongs in the resticulosa-complex of the regani-group. It has the
body shape and finnage of A. sp. Wangenflecken (Cheek-spotted), but the color is
strange and the photos are too out-of-focus to accurately examine the shape of the
caudal peduncle spot. For now I would leave it as A. sp. Alenquer, not Wangenflecken.
This fish hasn't been discussed anywhere in the hobby literature that I am aware of.

Now for some other odds & ends:

Page 58, row 2, left (S03815-3): This isn't A. resticulosa (Compare it with what is
probably A. resticulosa to it's immediate right, also numbered S03815-3). The fish on
the left has a deeper body and a taller, more narrow, caudal peduncle spot. It looks
very much like A. sp. Wangenflecken, only with a few more rows of spots on the tail.
What would I call it? A. cf. sp.  Wangenflecken? That's ridiculous! You can't have an
undescribed fish "conform" to another undescribed fish (or can you??). So for now I
call it Wangenflecken.

Page 58, row 4 (S03817-3): This fish looks very much like A. resticulosa, except that
it has only a couple of spot rows to the back of the tail fin. A. resticulosa has
them extending 2/3 of the way toward the root of the tail. For now I just call it A.
(cf.) resticulosa Velho.

As you can see, the resticulosa-complex is a very poorly understood group of fish

Page 59, row 3, (S03838-4): This fish was originally discovered and introduced to the
hobby as A. sp. Sao Gabriel. It's very reminiscent of A. hongsloi, except the caudal
peduncle patch is violet in color. This is the only member of the macmasteri-group
that we presently know about that doesn't come from the Orinoco Basin of Venezuela &
Colombia. It shows that apistos are still dispersing in this area, macmasteri-group
species moving south while pertensis-group species are moving north.

Page 59, row 4, left: This fish was originally introduced to the hobby as an aberrant
form of A. sp. Amapá by Koslowski. It comes from the Rio Cunaní in the Brazilian
state of Amapá, across the Amazon from Belém. Choose a name, neither are entirely
accurate.

Page 61, row 2, (S03850-4): This is a form of A. sp. Breitbinden (Broad-banded) that
Linke & Staeck introduced A. sp. Caño Morrocoy in the most recent (1997) edition of
their book. You won't find it in your English (1994) edition. This is a northern race
that comes from around Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela. When compared with the traditional
Rio Negro form, it has rows of slightly wider spots separated by narrower
interstitial areas.

Page 61, row 3, (S03855-3): This is the fish originally called A. sp. Rio Xingu.
There are two forms in which one has many more rows of spots in the tail (A. sp. Rio
Xingu "Stawikowski") than the other (A. sp. Rio Xingu "Chao"). This fish was
collected by Chao on the middle Rio Xingu and preserved specimens were cataloged as
"Chao 93-107" (hence the name here) for future taxonomic description. In a recent
article Warzel says that young males don't have the spot rows, but get them as they
mature.

Page 61, row 4, left (S03860-4): It doesn't look like A. sp. Vierstreifen
(Four-stripes) to me. Maybe it's the angle of the fish, but it looks too slender, and
the dorsal fin is more sail-like than that of Vierstreifen. I don't know, but to me
it looks like, possibly, A. pertensis. The female to its right looks like
Vierstreifen.

Page 62, row 4, (S03890-4): I don't know what this fish is, but I don't like the name
"A. sp. Peru". First of all this name was used previously by Koslowski as a common
name for A. urteagai before it was scientifically described. The fish shown here is
more closely related to A. cruzi. Using A. sp. Peru for this fish will only confuse
the matter. For now I'm simply calling it A. sp. aff. cruzi for want of a better
name.

Mike Wise

>
>
> Ken.
>
> *****************************
> Ken Laidlaw
> UK Astronomy Technology Centre
> Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
> Web: http://www.roe.ac.uk
> *****************************
>
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