Hepsetus Explained

Hepsetus is a genus of African fishes, the African pikes or African pike characins, in the order Characiformes. It is the sole genus in the family Hepsetidae. It was long believed that only a single widespread species existed, H. odoe, but studies in 2011–2013 have shown that this species is restricted to parts of West and Central Africa. The well-known species of southern Africa, including Kafue River, is Hepsetus cuvieri.^[1] These predatory fish reach up to 44cm (17inches) in length.

Species

There are currently six recognized species in this genus:

• Hepsetus cuvieri (Castelnau, 1861)^[1]
• Hepsetus kingsleyae Vreven, Decru & Snoeks, 2013^[2]
• Hepsetus lineatus (Pellegrin, 1926)^[2]
• Hepsetus microlepis (Boulenger, 1901)^[3]
• Hepsetus occidentalis Decru, Snoeks & Vreven, 2013^[4]
• Hepsetus odoe (Bloch, 1794)^[5]

Synonym:

• Hepsetus akawo Decru, Vreven & Snoeks, 2012 = Hepsetus odoe^{[4] [6]}

Notes and References

1. Zengeya . T. A. . Decru . E. . Vreven . E. . amp . Revalidation of Hepsetus cuvieri (Castelnau, 1861) (Characiformes: Hepsetidae) from the Quanza, Zambezi and southern part of the Congo ichthyofaunal provinces . Journal of Natural History . 2011 . 45 . 27–28 . 1723–1744 . 10.1080/00222933.2011.560724.
2. Decru . E. . Vreven . E. . Snoeks . J. . amp . A revision of the Lower Guinean Hepsetus species (Characiformes; Hepsetidae) with the description of Hepsetus kingsleyae sp. nov. . Journal of Fish Biology . 2013 . 82 . 4 . 1351–1375 . 10.1111/jfb.12079 . 23557311.
3. Decru . E. . Snoeks . J. . Vreven . E. . amp . Taxonomic evaluation of the Hepsetus from the Congo basin with the revalidation of H. microlepis (Teleostei: Hepsetidae) . Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters . 2015 . 26 . 3 . 273–287 .
4. Decru . E. . Snoeks . J. . Vreven . E. . amp . The true identity of the holotype of Hepsetus odoe and the names of the two West African species of Hepsetus (Teleostei: Hepsetidae) . Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters . 2013 . 24 . 2 . 187-192 .
5. Decru . E. . Vreven . E. . Snoeks . J. . amp . A revision of the West African Hepsetus (Characiformes: Hepsetidae) with a description of Hepsetus akawo sp. nov. and a redescription of Hepsetus odoe (Bloch, 1794) . Journal of Natural History . January 2012 . 46 . 1–2 . 1–23 . 10.1080/00222933.2011.622055.
6. http://www.fishbase.org/Nomenclature/ScientificNameSearchList.php? FishBase: Scientific Names where Genus Equals Hepsetus