The Tilapias of Lake Malawi |
 Oreochromis of the squamipinnis group. Photo copyright © by M. K. Oliver |
All the tilapias (genera Coptodon, Oreochromis, and Tilapia) that are known, or have been reported, to occur in Lake Malawi are listed below, along with notation of their endemicity.
Note on the subgenera of Oreochromis: Except for
Oreochromis shiranus, all L. Malawi Oreochromis species
have been placed in the subgenus Nyasalapia Thys van den Audenaerde
(1968), which also includes species not found in L. Malawi.
Trewavas (1983: 28) identified the type
species of this subgenus as Chromis squamipinnis Günther, 1864
[=Oreochromis squamipinnis], by original designation of Thys.
Eschmeyer's (1990) hard-cover
Catalog of the Genera of Recent Fishes considered the name Nyasalapia
to be not available; it was said to have been published with no included species
and no description. However, the current on-line version of the
Catalog of Fishes
now recognizes Nyasalapia as a valid name and accepted as a subgenus of Oreochromis,
so it would appear that Trewavas was correct all along.
- Coptodon Gervais, 1853
- Coptodon rendalli (Boulenger, 1897) — Nonendemic, widespread species
- Oreochromis Günther, 1889
- Oreochromis (Nyasalapia) karongae (Trewavas, 1941) — Endemic species. O. saka (Lowe, 1953) is now regarded as a junior subjective synonym of O. karongae (Turner & Robinson, 1991)
- Oreochromis (Nyasalapia) lidole (Trewavas, 1941) — Species endemic to L. Malawi and to the crater lakes L. Kingiri and L. Chungruru in the Rungwe Mountains of Tanzania some 8-50 km north of L. Malawi
- Oreochromis (Nyasalapia) squamipinnis (Günther, 1864) — Endemic species
- Oreochromis (Oreochromis) shiranus shiranus Boulenger, 1897 — Endemic subspecies; another subspecies is found in nearby lakes Chilwa and Chiuta
- Tilapia Smith, 1840
- Tilapia (Coptodon) rendalli (Boulenger, 1897) — Nonendemic, widespread species
