Chromaphyosemion melanogaster Legros et al. 2005

Rainer Sonnenberg, 2007, Description of three new species of the genus Chromaphyosemion Radda, 1971 (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae) from the coastal plains of Cameroon with a preliminary review of the Chromaphyosemion splendopleure complex., Zootaxa 1591, pp. 1-38 : 31

Chromaphyosemion melanogaster Legros et al. 2005 .

The description of C. melanogaster was published in the same paper as that of the previous species ( Legros et al. 2005) and the authors are in my opinion correct in their hypothesis that this is a valid species. Unfortunately their diagnosis contains some characters which are not unique for C. melanogaster . As one of the main diagnostic characters they use the presence of the lower lateral stripe in dominant fish in combination with the absence of the upper one. The lower stripes of both sides are then completely black and fuse ventrally. This is not restricted to C. melanogaster , it can also be observed at least in C. punctulatum (pers. obser.), C. cf. splendopleure (pers. obser.; H. Kullmann, pers. comm.) and in several Chromaphyosemion populations from Equatorial Guinea and Bioko ( Pohlmann 2006a) including C. malumbresi . As these are, according to the mitochondrial DNA data, only in part closely related to C. melanogaster , this character has lost its diagnostic significance even as a character for a species group. Chromaphyosemion melanogaster (Fig. 30) is distinguished from its closest relatives, C. malumbresi from Equatorial Guinea, and C. kouamense from Gabon by its mainly greenish body and fin coloration versus bluish or reddish to orange body color and orange, blue or greenish coloration in males unpaired fins. Chromaphyosemion melanogaster can be distinguished from species with similar greenish body color by the combination of the previous listed characters versus unpaired fins light green and center of anal and dorsal fins with orange in combination with yellow to orange from ventral half of opercle to start of anal ( C koungueense and C. punctulatum ). Most populations of the group composed of C. malumbresi , C. melanogaster , C. kouamense and some forms currently not included in C. malumbresi from Equatorial Guinea ( Legros & Zentz 2007) show many reddish or dark red dots on unpaired fins, a character not unique to this group as shown in C. punctulatum (Figs. 24, 27-29). They also show nearly regular rows of red dots on sides, which can also be found in some C. loennbergii populations.