''Maylandia flavifemina'' is a species of

haplochromine __NOTOC__ The haplochromine cichlids are a tribe of cichlids in subfamily Pseudocrenilabrinae called Haplochromini. This group includes the type genus (''Haplochromis'') plus a number of closely related genera such as '' Aulonocara'', '' Astat ...

cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted this ...

which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

Description

''Maylandia flavifemina'' has 17–19 spines in its

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

which also have 17–19 soft rays, there are 8-10 spines and 6–9 soft rays. Juveniles and femalesvary in colour from a pale bluish-beige to completely yellow and they have a bright yellow anal fin. The males have a black anal fin and black membranes in the

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

, distinguishing them from their congeners which have blue or yellow anal fins and the membranes of the caudal fin are yellow or blue. They grow to a

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

of .

Distribution

''Maylandia flavifemina'' is endemic to Lake Malawi where it has been recorded from the southern part of the lake in Malawi, occurring around Maleri Island, Nakantenga Island, Nankoma Island, Thumbi West Island, Chidunga Rocks and Namalenje Island.

Habitat and ecology

''Maylandia flavifemina'' inhabits Lives the interfaces between sandy and rock substrates over slabs, above small areas of sand between rocks and rarely over fragmented rock. The males are

territorial A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

and will defend their territories against conspecific males. A territory usually consists of an area of sand situated between rocks and males with territories at the bottom of reefs excavate a spawning cave beneath the rock. The females are frequently solitary but they can be found in small groups of up to 3 individuals. The juveniles and non-territorial adult males similarly occur in singles, pairs or in small shoals of 3-8 fish. It occurs at depths of > This species feeds from the sediment rich aufwuchs on the rocks, raking

diatoms A diatom (New Latin, Neo-Latin ''diatoma''), "a cutting through, a severance", from el, διάτομος, diátomos, "cut in half, divided equally" from el, διατέμνω, diatémno, "to cut in twain". is any member of a large group com ...

and loose

algal Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

strands with its mouth. They have also been recorded as eating

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

crustaceans Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

, insects and

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) that are unable to propel themselves against a Ocean current, current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankt ...

Name

This species was first recorded in 1998 but was not formally described until

Ad Konings Adrianus Franciscus Johannes Marinus Maria "Ad" Konings (born 11 January 1956 in Roosendaal, Netherlands) is an ichthyologist originally trained in medicine and biology. Konings is best known for his research on African rift lake cichlids. After ...

and Jay Richard Stauffer Jr. named it as ''Metriaclima flavifemina'' in 2006. 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 ...

''flavifemina'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

for "yellow lady", an allusion to the yellow colouration of the females.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q11176970 flavifemina Fish of Lake Malawi Fish of Malawi Endemic fauna of Malawi Taxa named by Ad Konings Taxa named by Jay Richard Stauffer Jr. Fish described in 2006 Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN