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Open Access PDF - Sven Kullander

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388<br />

in large adults. Species with an abbreviated lateral<br />

band include C. kelberi, C. monoculus, C. ocellaris,<br />

C. orinocensis, and C. pleiozona. In these species,<br />

the band fades away before or at about 100 mm<br />

SL. In the smallest specimen of C. pleiozona<br />

(109 mm SL, Fig. 33), the caudal peduncle band<br />

is about to fade away. Juveniles of C. nigromaculata<br />

have not been available.<br />

In the smallest specimens available, about<br />

20-30 mm SL, the lateral band is present along<br />

with blotches 1 and 3, and the lateral band is more<br />

intense caudally in C. temensis (Fig. 81), but only<br />

blotches 1 and 3, and the caudal portion of the<br />

lateral band is present in C. orinocensis (Fig. 10),<br />

and C. kelberi (Fig. 28). Blotch 2 is absent or rudimentary.<br />

Small juveniles available to us were<br />

generally not purposefully preserved, and since<br />

the diagnostically helpful scale count cannot be<br />

used at least not without damaging the specimen,<br />

identification relies to some extent on presence<br />

of larger specimens from the same collecting event<br />

or site. Although it appears that there is a difference<br />

between species with complete or abbreviated<br />

band already at very small sizes, the material<br />

at hand is insufficient for conclusions. Specimens<br />

40-60 mm SL are available of most species.<br />

At this size the two different juvenile colour patterns<br />

are clearly demonstrable and includes a<br />

recognizable blotch 2. The abbreviated lateral<br />

band is, however, reflected in species with a<br />

complete band, in which it may appear as a caudal<br />

intensification of the lateral band (e.g., Fig.<br />

81).<br />

Small juveniles of Crenicichla (10-19 mm SL)<br />

display a continuous black band from snout to<br />

caudal fin, but no blotches or vertical bars. In<br />

Crenicichla, the lateral band is retained into the<br />

adult stage in many species, but is commonly lost<br />

in adults of the larger species. Several species of<br />

Crenicichla are vertically barred as adult, but there<br />

is no information about early colouration ontogeny<br />

in those species. A juvenile, 21.6 mm SL of<br />

C. semifasciata, a species with a series of blotches<br />

along the middle of the side as adult, has a nearcontinuous<br />

lateral band. We have not been able<br />

to examine juvenile Teleocichla, a genus closely<br />

related to Crenicichla.<br />

Adult colour pattern. In juveniles of all species<br />

there is some dark pigment in a band from the<br />

orbit caudad to the margin of the gill cover, much<br />

less intense in species with abbreviated juvenile<br />

lateral band than in species with complete lat-<br />

eral band. In adults, only C. temensis retains this<br />

postorbital band, whereas it is absent from<br />

C. kelberi, C. monoculus, and C. pleiozona, and either<br />

absent or represented by a few scattered small<br />

black spots in C. ocellaris and C. orinocensis, and<br />

probably in C. nigromaculata. It is represented by<br />

a few large, usually ocellated blotches in C. intermedia,<br />

C. jariina, C. pinima, C. piquiti, C. thyrorus,<br />

and C. vazzoleri, and usually associated with a<br />

few similar blotches on the opercle, but in C. melaniae<br />

and C. mirianae the postorbital blotches are<br />

notably minute. In adults, a black marking may<br />

be present on the anterodorsal process of the<br />

preopercle, either round or extended as a short<br />

stripe. This marking was observed only in C. intermedia,<br />

C. jariina, C. mirianae, C. thyrorus, and<br />

C. vazzoleri, and variably in C. pinima.<br />

Several species with complete juvenile lateral<br />

band share a common pattern of relatively regular<br />

horizontal rows of light spots, including two<br />

rows marginal to the lateral band, and one more<br />

dorsal and one more ventral, viz. C. jariina,<br />

C. pinima, C. temensis, C. thyrorus, and C. vazzoleri.<br />

Among those species, the rows are most neatly<br />

linear in C. temensis, but commonly include irregularities<br />

in the other species. In C. melaniae,<br />

and C. mirianae there are many scattered small<br />

spots on the side. In C. piquiti these spots may be<br />

absent, although young specimens possess light<br />

margins to the lateral band. In remaining species<br />

of Cichla a pattern of distinct light spots never<br />

shows; however, a very dense mottling by small<br />

light spots has been observed in at least some<br />

specimens of C. kelberi, C. monoculus, C. ocellaris,<br />

C. orinocensis, and C. pleiozona, apparently producing<br />

a golden sheen to the side in living specimens<br />

(Figs. 9, 26).<br />

Each species of Cichla possesses a distinctive<br />

adult colour pattern, which is more contrast rich<br />

in males, and in most species includes large black<br />

blotches on the side lined with silver or golden.<br />

These ocellar markings derive from vertical bars<br />

and are believed, in the absence of systematic<br />

gonadal or field behavious surveys, to represent<br />

breeding markings. The only exceptional species<br />

may be C. piquiti. In C. kelberi, C. monoculus, and<br />

C. pleiozona, the breeding colouration is dominated<br />

by intensified blotch-like dorsal portions<br />

of the vertical bars best exemplified by Fig. 26,<br />

see also Figs. 27, 32, 36). In C. ocellaris and C. nigromaculata<br />

there may be dorsal blotches (Figs. 8,<br />

22), but other specimens of C. ocellaris possess<br />

ocellated markings retracing portions of the bars<br />

<strong>Kullander</strong> & Ferreira: Review of Cichla

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