For all you Lake Malawi cichlid fans, two new species of haplochromines have been formally described and identified, both in the Mylochromis genus.
The two species, rotundus and durophagus, add to the other 22 identified species within the genus, making it one of the larger of the 58 genera in the lake. Maternal mouthbrooders, Mylochromis are mid-sized cichlids ranging from ~6″ to 10″ in TL.
No live photos of the collected specimens were taken upon capture of the fish for analysis. However, the author of the paper offering the formal descriptions supplies photos of undescribed Mylochromis species that may represent the two species. The photos below were copied from the article as were each photo caption. The online article is under the Creative Commons – Attribution 4.0 International license, allowing free copy and distribution).
Both holotype and paratypes of M. rotundus were collected at Mphanga Rocks, located on the western side of the lake on the north end. Holotype of M. durophagus was collected at Nkhata Bay, while paratypes were collected at both Nkhata Bay and Mphanga Rocks. Nkhata Bay is also located on the western side of the lake but more south.
If you keep Mylochromis and are interested in learning more about the two new species, check out the article describing them – “Two new species of Mylochromis (Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa“.
Reference: Turner, G. F. Two new species of Mylochromis (Cichlidae) from Lake Malawi, Africa. Journal of fish biology. Dec. 2024; https://doi.org/10.1111/jfb.16014.