Two new West African dwarf cichlids from the Chromidotilapiine genus Pelvicachromis have been described in the journal Zootaxa.
The new species, Pelvicachromis signatus and P. rubrolabiatus were described by ichthyologist Anton Lamboj of the Institut fur Zoologie der Universitat Wien, Austria, from a series of fishes collected from Guinea, West Africa.
They closely resemble P. humilis, in sharing two tubular holes, called ossicles, in the infraorbital region of the head, and having seven or eight dark vertical bars on the body when displaying. However, P. rubrolabiatus has seven bars instead of the eight seen in humilis and signatus, as well as a smaller preorbital depth than signatus. P. signatus has a black spot on the dorsal and caudal fin of males, a black spot in the middle of the caudal peduncle of females, and occasionally, up to two black spots in the dorsal fin of the female.
The two species, which have previously entered the trade under the names Pelvicachromis sp. "Bandi" and P. sp. "Bandi 2" bring the total number of species in the genus to seven: P. humilis, P. roloffi, P. subocellatus, P. taeniatus, P. signatus and P. rubrolabiatus.
For further information, see the full paper in Zootaxa: Lamboj, A. (2004) - Pelvicachromis signatus and Pelvicachromis rubrolabiatus, two new cichlid species (Teleostei, Perciformes) from Guinea, West Africa.