The fishes collected by G. A. Fischer in East Africa in 1883 and 1885/86

摘要

At the end of the 19th century G. A. Fischer collected fishes in East Africa, more precisely in the modern countries Tanzania and Kenya. These fishes were the first specimens known to ichthyologists from some parts of these countries (e.g. from Lake Natron, Lake Victoria drainages). In this context the type localities and the status of Fischer's material are of special importance. Although modern ichthyologists working on East African fishes have been of the opinion that those localities are unknownthis is not the case and the itineraries of Fischer are well-documented. In this paper the types of Fischer's collections are redescribed and discussed, especially the Lake Victoria haplochromines, most of which were considered as lost. Two of these, Chromis nuchisquamulatus Hilgendorf, 1888 and Ctenochromis sauvagei Pfeffer, 1896, do not represent the biological species as previously believed, and two genera (Xystichromis and Ptyochromis) based by Greenwood (1980) on these taxa, are therefore of doubtful status. The taxonomic or biological species previously mistaken for Ctenochromis sauvagei Pfeffer, 1896, the nominal type of which was also collected by Fischer, is described as Haplochromis (Ptyochromis] fischeri spec. nov. The holotype of Ctenochromis sauvagei in fact corresponds to a species known as H. spec, "rockkribensis". Because Ctenochromis sauvagei is the type species of Ptyochromis Greenwood, 1980 and because the holotype of this nominal species is different from the taxonomic species andactually belongs to Paralabidochromis Greenwood, 1956, according to article 70.3.2 of I.C.Z.N. the biological species H. (Ptyochromis) fischeri was chosen from the two species in question and designated the type species for the genus group Ptyochromis Greenwood, 1980, in order to retain the genus group Ptyochromis unchanged.