Another species discovery in Lake Apoyo

Lake Apoyo now officially contains six endemic species of fishes, all close relatives of the Midas cichlid (Amphilophus citrinellus). The most recent two discoveries were published in the August edition of Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. The two new species are Amphilophus globosus and Amphilophus supercilius. The first discovered in Lake Apoyo in this group was the arrow cichlid, Amphilophus zaliosus, discovered by George W. Barlow, in 1976. The arrow cichlid was recently categorized as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List. We expect that most of the other five species in this lake face equal or greater extinction threats as the arrow cichlid, according to the results to date from population monitoring conducted by FUNDECI/GAIA in Lake Apoyo.

Here is a picture of Jay R. Stauffer, Jr., holding a copy of the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, in which the descriptions of the latest two species to be discovered were published. The journal graced its cover with photos of all six known species found in Lake Apoyo.

Photos on the cover of this journal were provided by Ad Konings, Topi Lehtonen, and Matthias Geiger.