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Glossolepis pseudoincisus [Lake Emfote] (male+female) - photo© Buddy Jonkers |
Allen and Cross, 1980
Tami River Rainbowfish
Species Summary
From October 1954 until May 1955, an expedition was made in Dutch New Guinea (West Papua) by the "Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie" in Leiden. The ichthyologist of the museum, Marinus Boeseman, was the leader of the expedition. His task was to provide a thorough knowledge of the fish fauna by intensively surveying as many rivers and lakes as possible in West Papua. This task was taken to heart and in a relatively short period many localities were visited, resulting in a rich collection for the museum in Leiden. This collection included many rainbowfishes, but a thorough study of this material and descriptions of all the new species was never made by Boeseman.
As part of his preparation for the revision of the rainbowfish family, Gerald Allen studied the Dutch collection of 1954-55 at the end of the seventies. He discovered no less than 4 new rainbowfish species, which he described in 1980 together with Norbert Cross. These species were Melanotaenia boesemani, Melanotaenia ajamaruensis, Melanotaenia japenensis and Glossolepis pseudoincisus. Glossolepis pseudoincisus was named pseudoincisus with references to its similar appearance and geographic proximity to Glossolepis incisus.
Glossolepis pseudoincisus look similar to G. incisus, but the scales are different (they're smaller and differently aligned). They are not as big as G. incisus; the body shape is more compact; the red coloration is more intense and the fin marking and shape is more pronounced. Females are differently coloured. They have a strong horizontal zigzagging yellow and red striped colouration across the whole body. They also remain small - up to 6 cm total length.
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Glossolepis pseudoincisus [Lake Emfote] - photo© Gunther Schmida |
Distribution & Habitat
Specimens of G. pseudoincisus were collected by Boeseman in November, 1954 in an ox-bow lake of the Tami River, about 30 kilometres to the east of Lake Sentani. They are also known from Lake Emfote, Lake Iwom and Lake Yaniruk.
Literature
Allen G.R. & N.J. Cross (1980) Descriptions of five new rainbowfishes (Melanotaeniidae) from New Guinea. Records of the Western Australian Museum 8 (3): 377-396.
Boeseman M. (1956) The Lake Resources of Netherlands New Guinea. South Pacific Commission Quarterly Bulletin 6(1): 23-25.
Adrian R. Tappin
Updated August, 2016
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