COMMENTS
v. 1.2 – 21 Dec. 2022 view/download PDF
Family CICHLIDAE Cichlids (part 1 of 7)
Subfamily ETROPLINAE
3 genera · 16 species
Etroplus Cuvier 1830 etron, belly; [h]oplon, armor, referring to prominent anal-fin spines
Etroplus canarensis Day 1877 –ensis, suffix denoting place: South Canara, southwestern India, type locality
Etroplus suratensis (Bloch 1790) –ensis, suffix denoting place: Suratte, India, type locality (also occurs in Sri Lanka; introduced in Singapore)
Paretroplus Bleeker 1868 para-, near, i.e., similar to Etroplus but distinguished by its dentition
Paretroplus dambabe Sparks 2002 compound Malagasy word (pronounced dambah bay): damba, originally used by Merina fish traders for a number of species of Paretroplus in northwestern Madagascar; be, large, referring to large size relative to most congeners
Paretroplus damii Bleeker 1868 in honor of Dutch explorer and naturalist Douwe Casparus van Dam (1827-1898), who collected type with Dutch naturalist and merchant François Pollen (1842-1888) [see Paratilapia polleni, below]
Paretroplus gymnopreopercularis Sparks 2008 gymnos, bare or naked, referring to scaleless preopercle
Paretroplus kieneri Arnoult 1960 in honor of André Kiener, French fisheries researcher who conducted numerous studies in Madagascar in the 1950s and 1960s and provided type specimens (he also co-described P. maculatus)
Paretroplus lamenabe Sparks 2008 compound Malagasy word: lamena, red one; be, large, referring to both coloration in life and large size relative to members of its sister clade, P. tsimoly and P. nourissati
Paretroplus loisellei Sparks & Schelly 2011 in honor of Paul V. Loiselle, Emeritus Curator of Freshwater Fishes at the New York Aquarium, for directing the authors’ attention to this new taxon, and for his efforts to document, preserve, and educate the public regarding Madagascar’s unique and severely threatened freshwater ichthyofauna
Paretroplus maculatus Kiener & Maugé 1966 spotted, referring to black humeral spot, which gets bigger as fish gets older
Paretroplus maromandia Sparks & Reinthal 1999 Maromandia, town and general region in northwestern Madagascar, type locality (from the Malagasy maro-, many, and –mandia, “to tread on or to go on a way [=journey]”)
Paretroplus menarambo Allgayer 1996 local Malagasy name for this cichlid (mea, red; rambo, tail), referring to vivid red caudal-fin margin of mature specimens
Paretroplus nourissati (Allgayer 1998) in honor of cichlid aquarist and collector Jean Claude Nourissat (1942-2003), who risked his life looking for new species in Madagascar, including this one (he died from malaria three days after returning from his last trip there)
Paretroplus petiti Pellegrin 1929 in honor of zoologist-anatomist Georges Petit (1892-1973), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), who collected type
Paretroplus polyactis Bleeker 1878 poly, many; actis, ray, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to more soft anal-fin rays (13-16) compared to P. damii (11-12), the only other species known at the time (Sparks [2008] interprets actis to mean ray [of light] or sunbeam, probably referring to reddish, orange and brown coloration in life)
Paretroplus tsimoly Stiassny, Chakrabarty & Loiselle 2001 Malagasy name (pronounced tsee-mool) for this cichlid in the Sakalava dialect spoken in the Akalimilotrabe region of Madagascar, type locality
Pseudetroplus Bleeker 1862 pseudo-, false, i.e., although similar to Etroplus, such an appearance is false
Pseudetroplus maculatus (Bloch 1795) spotted, allusion not explained, referring to rows of small orange spots on body and/or 2-5 large sooty spots on sides
Subfamily PTYCHOCHROMINAE Malagasy Cichlids
5 genera · 16 species
Katria Stiassny & Sparks 2006 tautonymous with Ptychochromoides katria
Katria katria (Reinthal & Stiassny 1997) local name for this cichlid in the Marolambo region of eastern Madagascar, type locality
Oxylapia Kiener & Maugé 1966 oxy, sharp or pointed, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to slender, elongate body (an adaptation to living in swift water); –lapia, perhaps referring to relationship with Paratilapia or to tilapia, latinization of !api, !Kung word for fish (“!” pronounced as a click, transcribed as “ti”), often used as a catch-all term for African cichlids
Oxylapia polli Kiener & Maugé 1966 in honor of Belgian ichthyologist Max Poll (1908-1991), who studied African cichlids and guided the authors’ research
Paratilapia Bleeker 1868 para-, near, allusion not explained, presumably referring to its similarity to and/or presumed relationship with Tilapia (although Bleeker regarded it closest to Hemichromis, now in Pseudocrenilabrinae)
Paratilapia polleni Bleeker 1868 in honor of Dutch naturalist and merchant François Pollen (1842-1888), who collected type with Dutch explorer and naturalist Douwe Casparus van Dam (1827-1898) [see Paretroplus damii, above]
Ptychochromis Steindachner 1880 ptycho, fold or flap, presumably referring to compressed lamellar flap on first gill arch of P. oligacanthus; Chromis (now in Pomacentridae but historically included many African cichlids), referring to similar dentition to that genus
Ptychochromis curvidens Stiassny & Sparks 2006 curvus, curve; dens, teeth, referring to its apomorphically recurved oral jaw dentition
Ptychochromis ernestmagnusi Sparks & Stiassny 2010 in honor of Ernest Magnus (1908-1983), at the request of the family of Rudolf G. Arndt, a German-American marine biologist and ichthyologist, whose “generous gift” supported the authors’ research (Magnus was Arndt’s uncle and was instrumental in helping Arndt’s family survive in Berlin after World War II and then immigrate to New York City in 1950, providing food, clothing, shelter, love, many kindnesses and moral support; R. G. Arndt, pers. comm.) [note: the authors misspelled Arndt’s first name as “Rudolph”]
Ptychochromis grandidieri Sauvage 1882 in honor of French naturalist and explorer Alfred Grandidier (1836-1921), who, along with Henri Joseph Léon Humblot (1852-1914), collected type
Ptychochromis inornatus Sparks 2002 plain or unadorned, referring to lack of lateral spotting or barring and overall plain appearance
Ptychochromis insolitus Stiassny & Sparks 2006 unusual, odd or queer, referring to its “somewhat atypical appearance” compared to congeners (e.g., shallow bodied) and the “anomalous morphology” of the aquarium-raised specimens examined in the authors’ study (e.g., absence of a “free” second epibranchial toothplate, a diagnostic feature of the genus)
Ptychochromis loisellei Stiassny & Sparks 2006 in honor of Paul V. Loiselle, Emeritus Curator of Freshwater Fishes at the New York Aquarium, who collected type, for his many contributions to the understanding and conservation of Madagascar’s freshwater fishes
Ptychochromis mainty Martinez, Arroyave & Sparks 2015 Malagasy word for black, referring to its uniform dark pigmentation pattern in alcohol and large black midlateral blotch in life
Ptychochromis makira Stiassny & Sparks 2006 named for the Makira region of northeastern Madagascar, where it appears to be endemic
Ptychochromis oligacanthus (Bleeker 1868) oligos, few; acanthus, spine, referring to reduced number of dorsal-fin spines compared to presumed congeners in Tilapia known at the time
Ptychochromis onilahy Stiassny & Sparks 2006 named for the Onilahy River, southwestern Madagascar, only known area of occurrence
Ptychochromoides Kiener & Maugé 1966 –oides, having the form of: referring to similarity to (and previous placement of P. betsileanus) in Ptychochromis
Ptychochromoides betsileanus (Boulenger 1899) –anus, belonging to: Betsileo region, southern central highlands of Madagascar, type locality
Ptychochromoides itasy Sparks 2004 named for Lake Itasy, a crater lake in the central highlands of Madagascar, type locality (where it is now extirpated)
Ptychochromoides vondrozo Sparks & Reinthal 2001 named for nearest village to type locality, Ramanara River, Fianarantsoa Province, southeastern Madagascar