A review of the Distichodus antonii assemblage (Characiformes: Distichodontidae) from the Congo basin

Abstract

The status of the Distichodus antonii assemblage, all large-sized, banded Distichodus species with a brownish-greenish colour pattern from the Congo basin, incorporating Distichodus antonii, Distichodus atroventralis, Distichodus fasciolatus, Distichodus langi and Distichodus mossambicus, has been revised. Distichodus antonii, D. fasciolatus and D. langi are found to be valid species, though the latter has long been considered a possible junior synonym of D. antonii. A detailed redescription for each of these three species is provided. Reports of D. mossambicus from the Congo basin are based on misidentifications; these specimens are assigned to the D. atroventralis complex, a seemingly polyspecific complex in need of further in-depth revision. An identification key to the large-sized Distichodus species from the Congo basin is provided.

Keywords:

• Distichodus antonii
• Distichodus atroventralis
• Distichodus fasciolatus
• Distichodus langi
• Congo basin

Acknowledgements

James Maclaine (BMNH), Melanie Stiassny and Barbara Brown (AMNH) are acknowledged for the loan of type specimens under their care, Georges Lenglet (RBINS) for facilitating access to the RBINS collections and Melanie Stiassny and Radford Arrindell (AMNH) for additional data on and a picture of the D. langi holotype and data on an additional D. fasciolatus specimen. This study was facilitated by financial support from the Lower Congo project (RMCA) funded within the framework of a Belgian Science Policy “Action 1” programme, a grant from the Axelrod Research Curatorship at the AMNH to EV, fieldwork grants to TM from the “Leopold III-Fonds voor natuuronderzoek en natuurbehoud”, the “Stichting ter Bevordering van het Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek in Afrika” and the COBAFISH project, and a study grant to VMZ by The Nile Basin Initiative (ATP programme no. 12566). Eva Decru (RMCA) commented upon the manuscript, Tobias Musschoot (RMCA) helped in creating distribution maps, Miguel Parrent (RMCA) registered the collection material, Alain Reygel (RMCA) made the specimen illustrations and Gert Boden (RMCA) traced some references. Prof. Jean-Claude Micha (FUNDP), Prof. Nseu Bekeli Mbomba and Prof. Lomema Takoy [Université de Kinshasa (DRC)] facilitated the present study for VMZ.