''Lepidiolamprologus meeli'' is a

cichlid Cichlids () are a large, diverse, and widespread family of percomorph fish in the family Cichlidae, order Cichliformes. At least 1,760 species have been scientifically described, making it one of the largest vertebrate families, with on ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Pseudocrenilabrinae The Pseudocrenilabrinae are a subfamily in the cichlid family of fishes to which, according to a study from 2004, includes all the Middle Eastern and African cichlids with the exception of the unusual '' Heterochromis multidens'' and the Malaga ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Lake Tanganyika Lake Tanganyika ( ; ) is an African Great Lakes, African Great Lake. It is the world's List of lakes by volume, second-largest freshwater lake by volume and the List of lakes by depth, second deepest, in both cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. ...

, where it is found in the waters of

Burundi Burundi, officially the Republic of Burundi, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is located in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa, with a population of over 14 million peop ...

, the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, and

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

. It is sometimes placed in ''

Neolamprologus ''Neolamprologus'' is a genus of cichlids endemic to eastern Africa with all but one species, '' Neolamprologus devosi'' from the Malagarasi River, occurring in Lake Tanganyika. It is the largest genus of cichlids in Lake Tanganyika and also the ...

'', and this may well be appropriate. As it seems, it belongs to a group also including '' N. boulengeri'' and '' L. hecqui'', '' L. attenuatus'' and '' L. kendalli''. Abstract

Etymology

This cichlid is named in honor of botanist Ludo van Meel (1908–1990), a member of the Belgian Hydrobiological Mission to Lake Tanganyika that took place between 1946 and 1947, during which the type specimen was collected.

Hybrids

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

ization seems to have played a major role in the

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

of this group, the exact relationships of the present species are obscure; one specimens was found to belong to an

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

lineage quite similar to ''L./N. hecqui'', while another was distantly similar to ''L. kendalli'' in this regard. Perhaps the former observation is based on a misidentified specimen; in any case it appears that a somewhat closer relationship between the present species and ''L. kendalli'' than of either to any other lamprologine is more likely than not. Yet as this observation is only based on analysis of

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...

data, it may just as well be that the first ''L./N. meeli'' were the hybrid offspring of a ''Lepidiolamprologus'' female ancestral to ''L. kendalli'' and a ''Neolamprologus'' male, with subsequent hybridization of ''L./N. meeli'' and ''L./N. hecqui''.

References

meeli Meeli is an Estonian feminine given name. The masculine version is Meelis. People named Meeli include: *Meeli Kõiva (born 1960), artist *Meeli Sööt Meeli Sööt (13 September 1937 – 16 March 2024) was an Estonian stage, television, rad ...

Taxa named by Max Poll Fish described in 1949 Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Lamprologini-stub