Thursday, May 7, 2020

A new fish: Limia mandibularis

Livebearing fish are quite famous among people with aquariums. The most known are guppies, platys, swordtails, and mollies. Livebearing means that the female provisions for the fertilized yolked eggs and gives birth to live young, which have a higher chance of survival than eggs. Fertilization is achieved internally with the male's gonopodium, a modified anal fin used for sperm transfer.

The genus Limia contains 21 species, most of them are endemic to Hispaniola and so is our new species that was found in Haiti. 

The new species name  is in reference to the well-developed lower jaw, a character that distinguishes the species.

For the experts: Limia mandibularis, a new livebearing fish of the family Poeciliidae is described from Lake Miragoane in southwestern Haiti on Hispaniola. The new species differs from all other species in the genus Limia by the presece of a well-developed lower jaw, the absence of preorbital and preopercular pores, and preorbital and preopercular canals forming an open groove each. The description of this new Limia species from Lake Miragoane confirms this lake as an important center of endemism for the genus with a total of nine described species so far.

No comments:

Post a Comment