A NEW SPECIES OF HEMICHROMIS (PISCES, CICHLIDAE) OF SIERRA LEONE AND LIBERIA By A. I. PAYNE AND E. TREWAVAS INTRODUCTION WHILE the junior author (A. I. P.) was making a general survey of the freshwater fishes of Sierra Leone, he found a hitherto undescribed species of Hemichromis. Some specimens were taken in baited plexiglass traps similar to that described by Breder (1960) as a fry-trap ; others were caught by hook and line. Among earlier collections from Sierra Leone in the British Museum (Natural History) we found that those of Mr N. W. Thomas, received in 1915, and Mr T. S. Jones, agricultural officer in the territory in the 19503, also contained examples of the new species. The juveniles from Mr Jones had been found sufficiently striking to have been labelled with a query as to species. Two from Liberia presented by Mr E. Roloff in 1972 and provisionally labelled 'Hemichromis sp/ also belong to the new species. The description below is based mainly on preserved material, but the colour is described from life. DESCRIPTION OF NEW SPECIES Hemichromis fugax sp. n. HOLOTYPE. <J, 72 + 19 mm, from a forest stream, Kassewe Forest Reserve, Sierra Leone. PARATYPES. Five specimens, 41-76 mm in SL from Kassewe, the Gbangbar system near Moyamba and from a small stream with muddy bottom near Njala, as listed on p. 166. DESCRIPTION. Details of these specimens (except the smallest), two from Victoria, Sierra Leone, and one from a stream about 50 km from Monrovia, Liberia (coll. Roloff), are given in Table I. The 41 mm paratype, having been preserved with the mouth thrust forward, is unsuitable for measurement of proportions. Upper profile of head straight, lower jaw slightly projecting. Cheek with 3 or 4 horizontal rows of scales, in some i or 2 small scales in addition. Teeth of jaws unicuspid, in one row in lower jaw (rarely i or 2 inner teeth), one and a short second row in upper jaw, the lengths grading smoothly from longer anterior to shorter posterior. Gill-rakers short, 2 + 1 + 5-7 on the first arch, the i or 2 lowest often abruptly smaller than the others. Bull. Br. Mus. nat. Hist. (Zool.) 30, 5 Issued 28 October 1976 9
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