© Rudolf Pohlmann

A new species of the genus Aphyosemion has been described in the journal ‘Zootaxa’.

A. pamaense was first collected in 2007 from a rivulet near the village of Pama, western Cameroon, and is currently known only from that location.

It is diagnosed by presence of two dark lateral stripes in both sexes, though these may disappear in males depending on mood.

In addition it possesses 9-14 dorsal-fin rays, 11-16 anal-fin rays and males develop filamentous extensions to the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins.

It differs from all other Chromaphyosemion species by the following combination of characters, although this information is only applicable to males with no diagnosis provided for females: unpaired fins with orange background, anal-fin without spots, throat orange, flanks purple to blue-grey.

The type locality is a small stream around 3 metres wide and 0.4 m deep with a mud and sand substrate, and A. pamaense was collected alongside three other killifish species, namely Epiplatys infrafasciattus, Aphyosemion edeanum and Procatopus similis.

During the dry season the stream does not flow freely with the fish apparently surviving in isolated pools which become green with algal growth.

The new species is considered a member of the putative subgenus Chromaphyosemion within which it appears most closely related to A. punctulatum, A. kougueense, A. omega and A. splendopleure.

For further information see the paper: Agnese, J-F., O. Legros, B. Cazaux and G. Estivals. 2013. Aphyosemion pamaense, a new killifish species (Cyprinodontiformes:  Nothobranchiidae) from Cameroon. Zootaxa 3670(4): 516-530