Accurate delimitation of species boundaries is a fundamental requirement for formulatingenvironmental policies and spatial conservation planning to prevent loss of biodiversity (e.g.Nel et al. 2011). However, because morphological differences may remain undetected as aresult of their subtlelty and the experience or expertise of the observer, there are several caseswhere two or more morphologically similar species have been mistakenly classified into asingle taxon, thus compromising conservation of rare, cryptic and narrow-range species(Bickford et al. 2007). The use of molecular data has resulted in the discovery of new speciesand several historically isolated lineages within many groups of freshwater fishes that werepreviously considered to be single wide-ranging species. This is particularly true for the CapeFold freshwater ecoregion (CFE) in South Africa and the Eastern Zimbabwe Highlandsfreshwater ecoregion (EZH), where new species, unique lineages and taxonomic conflictshave been discovered in various species groups (e.g. Bronaugh, Swartz & Sidlauskas 2020;Chakona et al. 2018a; Chakona, Swartz & Gouws 2013; Swartz, Skelton & Bloomer 2009;Wishart et al. 2006). Such findings have stimulated renewed interest in the systematics andtaxonomic revisions of freshwater fishes in southern Africa (e.g. Chakona & Skelton 2017;Chakona & Swartz 2013; Chakona, Swartz & Skelton 2014; Maake, Gon & Swartz 2014).This information has also been critical in guiding accurate International Union forConservation of Nature (IUCN) redlist assessments for freshwater fishes in South Africa(Chakona et al. in prep).
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