A revision of the Lake Victoria Haplochromis species (Pisces, Cichlidae), Part VIII ^^ P. H. Greenwood Department of Zoology, British Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD C. D. N. Barel Zoologisch Laboratorium der Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, Kaiserstraat 63, Leiden, The Netherlands Contents Introduction 141 Haplochromis crocopeplus sp. nov 142 Haplochromis sulphur eus sp. nov 148 Haplochromis plutonius sp. nov 151 Comments on the Haplochromis tridens species complex 155 New species of the H. serranus group 157 Haplochromis nanoserranus sp. nov. 157 Haplochromis cassius sp. nov 161 A new species of the H. empodisma-H. obtusidens group 164 Haplochromis ptistes sp. nov 164 New species of the H. ishmaeli-H. pharyngomylus group 169 Haplochromis teegelaari sp. nov 169 Haplochromis myler gates sp. nov 174 Acknowledgements 179 Appendix : The live coloration of certain previously described Haplochromis species, by M. J. P. van Oijen 180 References 192 Introduction Seven of the eight species described in this paper were collected during June 1975 by Drs G. Ch. Anker and C. D. N. Barel in the Mwanza and Speke Gulf regions (Tanzania) of Lake Victoria. The material was taken from trawl catches made, in general, over mud substrata and, for the most part, at depths of 2-10 m; one station, however, was considerably deeper (28 m); see Fig. 1. The eighth species is from much deeper water (50-60 m) in the northern (Ugandan) part of the Lake; it was collected by the senior author in 1970 during a survey cruise in the R.V. Ibis, then based at Jinja as part of a joint U.N.D.P.-E.A.F.F.R.O. research project into the fishery potential of Lake Victoria. All eight taxa must be considered elements of the still largely unknown offshore complex of Haplochromis species, now, or soon to be tapped by the developing trawl fishery on the lake. On the basis of data from collections made in various parts of Lake Victoria, it seems likely that the Mwanza and Speke Gulf species are confined to relatively shallow and sublittoral habitats, while the Ugandan species is restricted to deeper waters. It may be of some significance that none of the new Tanzanian species has been recorded from other and similar biotopes in the lake, yet they were captured together with several species known to have a lake-wide distribu-tion in such habitats. The new species are of particular interest because they include three new members of the H. tridens species complex, two additions to the H. ishmaeli-H. pharyngomylus grade of mollusc crushers, a new member of the H. empodisma-H. obtusidens mollusc-insectivore lineage, and the first 'dwarf member of the H. serranus lineage, a group of piscivorous species whose members otherwise reach some of the larger adult sizes found among the Lake Victoria species. (For Bull. Br. Mus. not. Hist. (Zool.) 33 (2): 141-192 Issued 23 February, 1978 141
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