Two new species of African suckermouth catfishes, genus Chiloglanis (Siluriformes: Mochokidae), from Kenya with remarks on other taxa from the area
Author
Schmidt, Ray C.
Author
Bart Jr, Henry L.
Author
Nyingi, Wanja Dorothy
text
Zootaxa
2015
4044
1
45
64
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.4044.1.2
788d4ef8-56a7-4957-93bf-b25a34465c14
1175-5326
290006
9E1A791F-650C-4ED8-AEB1-6325B1FB3409
Chiloglanis somereni
Whitehead 1958
Chiloglanis somereni
,
described from the Nyanza Province, occurs in
Kenyan
rivers and streams that flow into Lake Victoria (
Fig. 1
). The species is also found within the Lake Victoria affluents in
Tanzania
, the Malagarasi River, and may also occur within western Lake Victoria affluents (
Seegers 2008
). This species was collected in large numbers in the Riani River (affluent to the Kuja River) in the swift flowing water over rocks and small boulders.
TABLE 4.
Morphometric measurements and meristic counts for
Chiloglanis brevibarbis
. Standard length expressed in mm. All other measurements expressed in percent SL.
C. brevibarbis
Tana R. (N=20)
C. brevibarbis
Athi R.
(N=15)
C. brevibarbis
Tsavo R.
(N=22)
….continued on the next page
Chiloglanis somereni
is allopatrically distributed and readily distinguished from other
Kenyan
suckermouth catfishes. It is a sexually dimorphic species, with males displaying elongated rays in the anal fin (
Fig. 7
). This species has more mandibular teeth (
10–12 in
functional row) than all other
Kenyan
species except
C. devosi
and has longer pectoral and dorsal spines than
C. devosi
. It is one of the larger suckermouth catfishes found in
Kenya
with a maximum reported size of
68 mm
SL.
Whitehead (1958)
provided a few comments on reproductive biology, but little else is known of the ecology and life history of
C. somereni
. Morphometric measurements and meristic counts of
Kenyan
C. somereni
are found in
Table 3
.