KILLI - DATA SERIES, 2024, Huber, revision Epiplatys and subgenera, with 2 new subgenera

Killi-Data Series 2024 [100 pages, as a print, ISBN 978-2-9547546-6-6, as a PDF document, ISBN 978-2-9547546-7-3]

Killi-Data Series 2024, 4-60, 7 figs.

Taxonomic Reappraisal and Rearrangement of genus Epiplatys and Its generic and specific Components, with 2 new subgenera

Huber J.H. 

Abstract : The poorly known genus Epiplatys and its many species are systematically and taxonomically reviewed according to morphological data, new diagnoses with a coded system of bars on sides and proposed phylogenetic keys, in comparison with limited and contradictory molecular data, based on distinct sequences. The previously distinct, or not, genera (according to authors), Aphyoplatys and Pseudepiplatys, are lumped into Epiplatys and downgraded as subgenera in line with molecular data because no major difference could be disclosed except size (smaller) and pattern (very broad bars and black head for the latter), little neuromastic differences and Caudal fin shape (mid-pointed for the former), which are autapomorphies. A total of 54 species are considered as distinct and valid, many with reservations, and 6 species are considered as stable synonyms, out of a total of 75 taxa assignable to the genus, then 15 could be resurrected as valid with new collections, renewed diagnoses and molecular support. All specific taxa previously seen as valid subspecies in the past by various authors are provisionally valid and conservatively upgraded to full species status, namely, zenkeri, rathkei (ex-subspecies of infrafasciatus), nigricans (ex-subspecies of chevalieri), monroviae (ex-subspecies of dageti), sheljuzhkoi, spillmanni, schreiberi, samborskii (ex-subspecies of chaperi), zimiensis, tototaensis, josianae, azureus, puetzi (ex-subspecies of fasciolatus), kassiapleuensis, dauresi (ex-subspecies of olbrechtsi), except taeniatus (ex-subspecies of bifasciatus) which is synonymized again into bifasciatus, according to new findings. The case of lokoensis is reviewed and it status is provisionally considered as valid and distinct following new scattered collections but unverified identifications, and the phylogenetic position of 2 relict species, longiventralis and biafranus, is hypothetically changed following new diagnoses (the former with lectotype designation), but with still instability. Finally 2 new subgenera are erected, as Xerosplatys n. subgen. and Kulonplatys n. subgen., each diagnosed by several synapomorphies, geographical specificities, also supported by molecular data, and all other existing subgenera are kept as valid because they can be easily diagnosed, sometimes with new characters, each with listed and keyed components.

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