Gularopanchax


The Gularopanchax Conundrum



I'm trying to organize photos of the gularopanchax tribe and found a minor inconsistency between Huber[1] and Eshemeyer[2].

Eschemeyer recognizes Fp. kribianum but not Fp. schwoiseri which he says is fallax. The problem is a google images search for fallax or kribanum bring up, pretty much, the same fish. That is, if there's some way to tell kribianum from fallax it's not obvious to me (or a lot of other poeple from what I can see).

The locations of fish we atribute to the kribianum "type" are from the south - Kribi, and all points south have the classic kribanum type (whether it's a species or not is of no concern, you only need to see the many types of gardneri once to know the variabiity in Fundulopanchax. Whereas the forms north of Kribi, most notably fifende looks like the fish we recognize as schwoiseri or "orange fallax". Earlier importations looked more "walkeri like" and similar to neither KRI or SWO.

And then there's DEL. Huber lists it as a species, Eschemeyer lists it as a junior synonym of FAL. I have no problem saying FAL = DEL = SWO but KRI is a distinct form? Hmm...

While GUL seems to represent a distinct porphospecies within Gularopanchax, I prefer to think of FAL as having three forms: the types we attribute to KRI, that is forms of FAL south of Kribi, and the SWO form of FAL from north of Kribi and the DEL from of FAL from the Niger Delta.

The difference between the southen and northern forms of FAL are not that great. The difference between DEL and either of the two is much greater, if these decisions were made strinctly on appearence I could understand DEL being a distinct species while the KRI and

To complicate things, Scheel and Radda place SWO in GUL - Originally described as a subspecies of A.gulare by Scheel & Radda in 1974 but was later given full specific status by Radda in 1975.
HistoryEschemeyerHuber
  • Aphyosemion gulare schwoiseri Scheel & Radda 1974
  • Aphyosemion schwoiseri Radda 1975
  • Fundulopanchax schwoiseri Lazara 1984
  • Aphyosemion fallax schwoiseri Frey 1992
  • Aphyosemion (Gularopanchax) schwoiseri Huber 1994
Synonym of Fundulopanchax fallaxFundulopanchax schwoiseri
  • Fundulus gularis (non Boulenger 1911) Krüger 1913
  • Aphyosemion kribianum Radda 1975
  • Fundulopanchax kribianus Lazara 1984
  • Aphyosemion fallax kribianum Frey 1992
  • Aphyosemion (Gularopanchax) kribianum Huber 1994
Fundulopanchax kribianus
(Radda 1975)		Fundulopanchax kribianus
  • Fundulus gularis Boulenger 1901
  • Fundulus gularis var. B. Arnold 1908
  • Fundulus gularis forma typica Arnold 1911
  • Fundulus gularis 'Gelb' Kuhnt 1923 (Yellow Fundulus)
  • Fundulopanchax gularis Rachow 1928
  • Aphyosemion gulare Myers 1933
  • Aphyosemion gularis Ladewig 1935
  • Aphyosemion beauforti (non Ahl 1924) Klee & Turner 1962
  • Aphyosemion gulare beauforti Gandert 1969
  • Aphyosemion (Fundulopanchax) gulare Radda 1970
  • Aphyosemion fallax (non Ahl 1935) Scheel & Radda 1974
Fundulopanchax gularis (Boulenger 1902)Fundulopanchax gularis
  • Aphyosemion NSC - 7 Ingersoll 1975
  • Aphyosemion 'Liverpool' or 'Manchester' fallax (a BKA working name)
  • Aphyosemion 'Deltafish' (a working name suggested by Radda 1976)
  • Aphyosemion deltaense Radda 1976
  • Fundulopanchax gulare Parenti 1981
  • Fundulopanchax deltaensis Lazara 1984
  • Aphyosemion (Gularopanchax) deltaense Huber 1994
Synonym of Fundulopanchax gularis (Boulenger 1902)Fundulopanchax deltaensis

[1] Huber - killi-data 2007, archived at: http://species.killi.net/huber/name/
[2] Eschemeyer - Catalog of Fishes: http://research.calacademy.org/ichthyology/catalog

Copyright 2022
Richard J. Sexton