Pantodon buchholzi Peters, 1877
Species overview
Body short, slightly compressed, head with flat upper side, back of body flat too, straight to slightly convex, with dorsal fin close to caudal fin. Fins quite odd shaped, extremely transparent, body dark to black spotted on white or silvery ground; fins transparent with banded fin-rays.
Size observed: no more than 10 cm SL, one of the smallest fishes of the superfamily (only among the Mormyridae species of same size or smaller ones occur).
Taxonomic description
-Body short, oval in cross section, with thick caudal peduncle, greatest depth at about middle of body.
-Outline of back straight to sligthly convex, outline of belly clearly convex.
-Head longer than deep, flat on top with large free neuromasts, sensory organs of the lateral line, between walls of skin directed forward and sidewards to perceive surface waves of the water caused by insects (see below).
-Mouth terminal, wide, its edge below the eye.
-Opercular cleft löng, rather straight.
-Pectoral fin large, obtusely pointed, its first ray unbranched, rather hard, fin rather firm compared to the more limb other fins, long, extending well behind middle od body.
-Anal fin originating closer to origin than to tip of pectoral, with extremely long fin-rays and very short membranes in between.
-Dorsal fin very small, pointed, originating above end of anal fin, fin-rays only slightly longer than fin membrane.
-Anal fin longer than its base, longest fin-ray is the fourth one; caudal fin large, with extremely long fin-rays, in particular the central.ones.
-Scales large.
-Coloration, back and flanks grey-green to silvery-brown, with variable patterns of bands and or spots; a dark well defined line between back of the head and lower jaw usually present; pectoral fin blackish with bright or white border, fin-rays of the other fin are banded white and dark, matching the dark spots on the body in colour.
The fish lives in shallow waters where its feeds mainly on insects floundering on the water surface which its detects by means of a very special arrangement of free lateral line organs on the flattened head which perceive the waves caused by the prey. Common name: Butterfly fish, but its ability to fly is still debated, but it may jump out of the water for considerable distances.
Type locality
>Victoria River< Cameroon.
Distribution
>Lower Niger, Lake Chad, Cameroon, Ogowe, Congo basin, Upper Zambezi.<