THE NOTHOBRANCHIUS SITE

ZFMK 41848, holotype, male, 44.5 mm SL; Tanzania: seasonal pool on the right side of the main road T8 from Ipole to Rungwa, near Mabangwe village, close by the bridge over the Limba Limba River, altitude 1114 m, Malagarasi River drainage (05°59'01" S, 32°48'05" E); 2 Jun 2008, K. Kardashev & I. Ivanova, [field code: Mabangwe TZ 08-14].

ZFMK 41849-41850 (2), 41851 (1); MRAC 2010-33-P-1 (1), 2010-33-P-2-3 (2); MSNG 56046 (1), 56045A-B (2)

Nothobranchius seegersi males share with the other members of the N. neumanni species group a combination of colouration characters, which distinguish them from all other species of the genus: caudal fin red or partially red; pectoral fin hyaline; anal fin yellow with red stripes, proximal portion light bluish grey. It is distinguished from N. neumanni by bright light blue scales (vs. pale bluish grey), an irregular pattern formed by red scale margins on lateral body and head (vs. uniform), and a single, blue male colour morph (vs. two colour morphs, blue and red). Male and female N. seegersi have a relatively higher predorsal length compared to N. neumanni. In osteological characters, Nothobranchius seegersi differs from N. neumanni by having a conspicuously longer lateral process of the post-temporal, and by having short antero-dorsal process of the urohyal (after Valdesalici & Kardashev, 2011).

Subgenus: Zononothobranchius

Species group: N. neumanni group

Following its discovery in 1992, populations of this species were regarded as N. aff. neumanni in Seegers (1997), based on some similarities of male colour pattern, until the species was described by Valdesalici & Kardashev in 2011 as Nothobranchius seegersi, and that status has since been accepted by all authors.

Tanzania: seasonal pool on the right side of the main road T8 from Ipole to Rungwa, near Mabangwe village, close by the bridge over the Limba Limba River, altitude 1114 m, Malagarasi River drainage (05°59'01" S, 32°48'05" E).

This species is endemic to seasonal freshwater habitats in central Tanzania. It is known from ephemeral pools and swamps in the drainage system of the Wulua and Mungu rivers of the Malagarasi River basin in central Tanzania.

Malagarasi–Moyowosi (543)

1093–1312 m

The type locality was at the time of collection a small and very shallow pond, about 3 x 5 m wide and 0.25 m deep, without aquatic vegetation, in the open woodland. The water was brown and very turbid. No other fish species was found in the pool (Valdesalici and Kardashev 2011).

N. sonjae - 27%

N. streltsovi - 11%

This species has an annual life cycle.

Embryonic development under captive conditions in peat moss is about four to five months at room temperature.

Maximum size reported: 57.5 mm SL (MSNG 56046, paratype, male).

Diploid chromosome number 2n = 36, NF = 56, karyotype structure 8m+12sm+16st/a (Krysanov & Demidova, 2018).

Karyotype structure unique in the genus.

The specific name is given in honour to its first collector, aquarist and ichthyologist Lothar Seegers, Germany.

Vulnerable B1ab(iii) (Nagy & Watters, 2019)

    Valdesalici, S. & K. Kardashev. 2011. Nothobranchius seegersi (Cyprinodontiformes: Nothobranchiidae), a new annual killifish from the Malagarasi River drainage, Tanzania. Bonn Zoological Bulletin, 60 (1): 89–93. [taxonomy as Nothobranchius seegersi]

    Nagy, B. & B. R. Watters. 2019. Nothobranchius seegersi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T53904554A58340394. [conservation]

    Nagy, B., B. R. Watters, P. D. W. van der Merwe, F. P. D. Cotterill & D. U. Bellstedt. 2020. Review of the Nothobranchius ugandensis species group from the inland plateau of eastern Africa with descriptions of six new species (Teleostei: Nothobranchiidae). Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters, 30 (1): 21–73. [phylogeny]