Nothobranchius

Nothobranchius
Nothobranchius rachovii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cyprinodontiformes
Family: Aplocheilidae
Genus: Nothobranchius
W. K. H. Peters, 1868
Type species
Cyprinodon orthonotus
(W. K. H. Peters, 1844)
Synonyms

Adiniops Myers, 1924
Fundulosoma Ahl, 1924
Zononothobranchius Radda, 1969
Aphyobranchius Wildekamp, 1977
Paranothobranchius Seegers, 1985

Nothobranchius is a genus of small, freshwater annual fish in the family Aplocheilidae which was long included in the Nothobranchiidae family. They are mainly found in East Africa from Sudan to northern South Africa, but half a dozen species are found in the upper Congo River Basin and two species (N. rubroreticulatus and N. thierryi) are from west-central Africa. The greatest species richness is in Tanzania. Many species have very small distributions. There are many species: as of 2016 there are more than 70 species.[1]

Nothobranchius are typical annual killifish, part of the order Cyprinodontiformes. They inhabit ephemeral pools filled during the monsoon season, being adapted to the alteration of dry and wet seasons. Nothobranchius show extreme life-history adaptations: embryos survive by entering diapause, within eggs that have a very hard chorion and are resistant to desiccation and hypoxia. When the habitats dry up, the adult fish die and the eggs survive encased in the clay during the dry season.[2] The genus includes the vertebrates with the shortest life span. N. furzeri from Mozambique and Zimbabwe lives for between 3 and 6 months. It reaches maturity in 17 days.[2]

Etymology

Greek "nothos": false, spurious, and "branchia": gill.

Species

There are currently 73 recognized species in this genus:

References

  1. ↑ Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2016). Species of Nothobranchius in FishBase. August 2016 version.
  2. 1 2 Alexander Dorn, Zuzana Musilová, Matthias Platzer, Kathrin Reichwald and Alessandro Celler (2014) The strange case of East African annual fishes: aridification correlates with diversification for a savannah aquatic group? BMC Evolutionary Biology 14:210. DOI: 10.1186/s12862-014-0210-3
  3. 1 2 Valdesalici, S. (2014): Nothobranchius bellemansi and Nothobranchius occultus (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae) two new annual killifish from Sudan. Killi-Data Series, 2014: 4-19.
  4. ↑ Watters, B.R., Wildekamp, R.H. & Shidlovskiy, K.M. (2015): Description and biogeography of Nothobranchius capriviensis, a new species of annual killifish from the Zambezi Region of Namibia (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae). Journal of the American Killifish Association, 47 (4-6): 97-133.
  5. ↑ Nagy, B. (2014): Nothobranchius chochamandai, a new species of annual killifish from the Luapula drainage, Democratic Republic of Congo (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 25 (2): 167-183.
  6. ↑ Nagy, B. (2014): Nothobranchius flagrans, a new species of annual killifish from the Lufira drainage, Democratic Republic of Congo (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 25 (3): 259-276.
  7. 1 2 Valdesalici, S. (2012): Nothobranchius kardashevi and Nothobranchius ivanovae (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae): two new annual killifishes from the Katuma River drainage, western Tanzania. aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology, 18 (4): 191-198.
  8. ↑ Reichard, M. (2010). "Nothobranchius kadleci (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae), a new species of annual killifish from central Mozambique" (PDF). Zootaxa,. 2332: 49–60.
  9. ↑ Nagy, B. (2014): Nothobranchius milvertzi, a new species of killifish from the Lushiba Marsh in the Lake Mweru drainage, Zambia (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 24 (4): 347-360.
  10. ↑ Valdesalici, S., Bills, R., Dorn, A., Reichwald, K. & Cellerino, A. (2012): Nothobranchius niassa (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae), a new species of annual killifish from northern Mozambique. Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 23 (1): 19-28.
  11. 1 2 3 Wildekamp, R.H., Watters, B.R. & Shidlovskiy, K.M. (2014): Review of the Nothobranchius neumanni species group with descriptions of three new species from Tanzania (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae). Journal of the American Killifish Association, 47 (1): 2-30.
  12. ↑ Valdesalici, S. (2015): Nothobranchius torgashevi (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae) a new species of annual killifish with two male colour morphs from the Lake Eyasi Basin, Central Tanzania. Killi-Data Series, 2015: 17-30.
  13. ↑ Ng'oma, E., Valdesalici, S., Reichwald, K. & Cellerino, A. (2013): Genetic and morphological studies of Nothobranchius (Cyprinodontiformes) from Malawi with description of Nothobranchius wattersi sp. nov. Journal of Fish Biology, 82 (1): 165–188.
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