Above:
Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (formerly known as
Melanochromis "maingano" or misspelled as "manigano"),
photographed underwater
at Likoma Island, Malawi. This species is endemic to a small region
on the northeast shore of Likoma Island from Mbako Point to Membe Point
(Maingano is a village on this stretch of shoreline), feeding on benthic
invertebrates and zooplankton (Ribbink et al., 1983: 207).
According to
Bowers & Stauffer (1997: 53-54), M. cyaneorhabdos
"...[M]ay be distinguished from other members of this genus, except M. johannii Eccles, 1973, by the dark navy-blue ground color with a pale blue stripe running from the dorsal region of the caudal fin to the interorbital bar and a pale blue stripe running from the ventral region of the caudal fin to the pectoral region. Breeding M. cyaneorhabdos males tend to have an overall bluish hue, whereas M. johannii males tend to be almost black rather than blue. Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos tends to have more gill rakers on the first epibranchial (9-11) than does M. johannii (8-9; Eccles, 1973)."Photo from Plate 10a of Ribbink et al., 1983; reproduced by permission of the Zoological Society of Southern Africa. Below: The holotype of Melanochromis cyaneorhabdos (Penn State University, PSU 2650.1), an adult male 65.0 mm SL from Likoma Island; scale bar = 10 mm. Illustration by M. Katz, from fig. 4 of Bowers & Stauffer (1997); used with the kind permission of N. Bowers.
| Last Update: 1 June 2008
Web Author: M. K. Oliver, Ph.D. Copyright © 1997-2021 by M. K. Oliver, Ph.D. - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED |