A new species of Tilapia from southwestern Ghana and southeastern Ivory Coast has been described by German scientists in a recent issue of the journal Zootaxa.
Andreas Dunz and Ulrich Schliewen name the new cichlid Tilapia pra after the river drainage where the holotype was collected.
The new species has been collected in medium-sized rivers with a sandy or muddy substrate.
Tilapia pra is disnguished from congeners in having a combination of the following characters: bicuspid pharyngeal teeth in the posterior two rows of lower pharyngeal jaw absence of spatulate teeth on the outer row of both jaws, 10–12 gill rakers on the first ceratobranchial, 18–22 upper lateral line scales, 8–11 lower lateral line scales, lower lip length 8.0–10.7% standard length, lower jaw length 9.9–13.6% standard length, length of last dorsal-fin spine 16.2–21.3% standard length, length of anal-fin base 15.0–18.6% standard length, and a light brown to greyish dorsum and a beige to yellow ventral area with 6–7 vertical stripes on the body.
For more information, see the paper: Dunz, AR and UK Schliewen (2010) Description of a new species of Tilapia Smith, 1840 (Teleostei: Cichlidae) from Ghana. Zootaxa 2548, pp. 1–21.