Revista de Biología Tropical ISSN Impreso: 0034-7744 ISSN electrónico: 2215-2075

OAI: https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/oai
Feeding ecomorphologies in the fish genus Herichthys (Perciformes: Cichlidae) based on stomach content and lower pharyngeal jaw shape
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Keywords

diversification
trophic niche
segregation
geometric morphometrics
sympatric species
diversificación
nicho trófico
segregación
morfometría geométrica
especies simpátricas

How to Cite

Pérez-Miranda, F., Mejía, O., Zúñiga, G., Soto-Galera, E., & Rican, O. (2019). Feeding ecomorphologies in the fish genus Herichthys (Perciformes: Cichlidae) based on stomach content and lower pharyngeal jaw shape. Revista De Biología Tropical, 67(3), 643–653. https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v67i3.33616

Abstract

Speciation is a multifactorial process with factors acting at different scales of space and time. Trophic niche segregation has promoted the diversification of cichlids fishes in lentic (lacustrine) environments, whether this is also the case in lotic (riverine) systems remains unknown. Herichthys is the genus of cichlids with the most boreal distribution in the Americas comprising 12 currently recognized species, most micro-endemic and only two with a wide distribution. In the present work, we analyzed the stomach content and lower pharyngeal jaw morphologies of the species of the genus to evaluate the possible role of feeding ecology in the diversification of the group. Trophic strategies varied widely, including omnivores, piscivores, invertivores, molluskivores, detritivores, herbivores and algivores. Low values of Pianka's index of niche overlap were found in the sympatric micro-endemic species, while in the widely distributed species the indices ranged from low to very high. The analysis of lower pharyngeal jaw morphologies allowed discriminating a shape associated with piscivorous species from other foraging groups. The results of this study suggest that trophic niche segregation is a factor that could promotes diversification within the genus Herichthys although additional studies need to be performed to fully understand the speciation process in this group of Neotropical cichlid fishes.

https://doi.org/10.15517/rbt.v67i3.33616
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Copyright (c) 2019 Gerardo Zúñiga, Fabian Pérez-Miranda, Omar Mejía, Eduardo Soto-Galera, Oldrich Rican

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