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Free keywords:
taxonomy; Aphyosemion elegans; DNA; morphology; distribution
Abstract:
Aphyosemion pseudoelegans, new species, is described, based on collections that have been misidentified for
decades as A. elegans by all authors. The new species superficially resembles A. elegans, but can be distinguished from
the latter and all other species of the genus by a diagnostic combination of colour pattern characters, most prominently
it has a dark red to black dorsal fin in males, a colour pattern always absent in all known A. elegans populations, including
the type specimens, and an asymmetrical colour pattern on caudal fin margins versus symmetrical in A. elegans.
Aphyosemion pseudoelegans, new species, is found in small rivers on the left bank of the middle Congo, where it occurs
sympatric and sometimes even syntopic with A. elegans, A. sp. aff. castaneum, or an undescribed species of Aphyosemion
at Ikela.
