Tellia Gervais, 1853

Freyhof, Jörg & Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, 2020, A proposal for a new generic structure of the killifish family Aphaniidae, with the description of Aphaniops teimorii (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes), Zootaxa 4810 (3), pp. 421-451 : 439-440

Tellia Gervais, 1853

Fig. 13

Type species. Tellia apoda Gervais 1853

Diagnosis. Tellia is distinguished from all other genera in the family Aphaniidae by absence (vs. presence) of the pelvic fin. It is further distinguished by presence of a wide, black sub-marginal bar bordered by a yellow marginal band in the anal, dorsal and caudal fins of the male (vs. 0–14 bars or bands in the caudal fin, no distinct yellow margin in anal, dorsal and caudal fins, caudal fin entirely yellow in Aphanius species), plus a combination of non-unique characters as follows: head canals absent (vs. present in Aphaniops and Aphanius ); dermal sheath at the anal-fin base in the nuptial female present (vs. absent in Aphaniops ); flank pattern in the male comprising a series of black or brown bars (vs. small whitish or blue spots, arranged in vertical series or very narrow bars in Paraphanius); a bold, black spot at centre of the caudal-fin base in the female present (vs. absent in Paraphanius).

Included species. Tellia apoda .

Distribution. Tellia is restricted to northern Algeria ( Pellegrin 1921) ( Fig. 14 ) but only a captive population originating from a single collection by Van Der Zee & Vonk (1991) remains. Despite intensive field work, no additional populations have been found and this species appears to be extinct in the wild.

Remarks. Tellia is clearly diagnosed by absence of the pelvic fin as well as by a unique nuptial male colour pat- tern. Hoedeman (1951) synonymised Tellia with Aphanius , because absence of pelvic fins seems not to be enough for an own genus. We support this view, since the pelvic fin is occasionally absent in individuals, but never entire populations, belonging to other genera, particularly Apricaphanius and Anatolichthys . In addition, molecular data presented by Hrbek et al. (2002) and Geiger et al. (2014) as well as the unique colour pattern of male Tellia strongly support its recognition as a distinct genus.

Hrbek et al. (2002) and Esmaeili et al. (2020) discussed the phylogenetic position of Tellia and suggested it to be the sister of all Aphaniid genera except Aphaniops and Paraphanius. However, Hrbek et al. (2002) and Geiger et al. (2014) alternatively recovered Tellia as the sister taxon to all other Aphaniid species. There were no statisti- cal differences between these contrasting placements ( Hrbek et al. 2002), therefore further research is required to resolve the phylogenetic position of Tellia within Aphaniidae .

Figures

FIGURE 13. Tellia apoda, not preserved, from the top: female, ~45 mm SL; male, ~40 mm SL; Algeria: stream south of Ain M’Lila.

FIGURE 14. Records of Apricaphanius and Tellia species.