Similar ecology, different morphology: Three new species of oral‐mollusc shellers from Lake Edward

• DOI: 10.1111/jfb.14107
• Publication Date: 2019-07-24T07:57:51Z
• Authors: Nathan Vranken; Maarten Van Steen...; Jos Snoeks
• Keywords: Morphology

Lake Edward, East Africa, harbours a largely understudied assemblage of haplochromine cichlids that displays range adaptions to various specialised trophic niches. In this system, we discovered specimens Haplochromis with morphologies similar those oral-mollusc shellers from Victoria. These are characterised by short oral jaws stout teeth used either crush molluscs or grab the soft bodies snails and wrench them out their shells. A morphometric study on 47 Edward revealed presence three new species an oral-shelling morphology: concilians sp. nov., H. erutus nov. planus All formally described. Stomach-content observations confirmed opportunistic ecology for Within only large displayed morphology, but stomachs were nearly empty, while small consumed mainly Ostracoda Hydrachnidia. Remarkably, differed considerably in morphology each other, they resembled oral-sheller