The Popoyote (''Profundulus hildebrandi''), also known as the Chiapas killifish, is a
killifish from the
family Profundulidae
Profundulidae is a family of killifishes. The species of this family are native to Central America and Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is b ...
which is
endemic to the valley of
San Cristobal de las Casas in the
Chiapas Highlands in Southern
Mexico. It is highly
endangered because its natural
habitat, which amounts to only a few square kilometers, is subject to contamination and
urban sprawl from San Cristobal. It is currently being targeted by a civil society alliance for the protection of San Cristobal's
wetlands.
''Profundulus hildebrandi'' was
described in 1950 by Robert Rush Miller with the
type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
given as the closed basin of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the Atlantic drainage of Chiapas at an elevation of .
The
specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
honours the
American ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
Samuel F. Hildebrand (1883-1949).
The popoyote can grow up to in length and weigh up to . It is marked with numerous vertical bars as a juvenile which disappear in the adult.
Spawning begins at the end of February and continues until the onset of the rains in June.
[ During breeding season the adults are greyish in colour with green tones and yellow fins.][ The popoyote uses the channels and puddles that remain after the rains to lay as many as 150 eggs per female, which hatch after three days. The larvae reach the juvenile stage after three months and in less than one year become adult. Their diet largely consists of the larvae and adults of mosquitoes,][ although they will also feed on molluscs as well as other insects, such as beetles and dragonflies.]
References
Further reading
Caught in the Middle.
by Juana de Jesús Pérez Méndez, March 24, 2007
External links
Discover life: Profundulus hildebrandi Miller, 1950
Profundulidae
Fish described in 1950
Endemic fish of Mexico
{{Cyprinodontiformes-stub