NEWS108
47
Lexicon
Halfbeaks
Nomorhamphusmeans roughly
"withequal jaws ", referring to the ;
upper and lower jawsbeingaround
the same length,unlikeotherhalf-
beaks.
liemi:named inhonorof the Indo-
nesianornamental fishexporterDig
Liemof thecompanyVivaria Indo-
nesia.
rexmeans ”king”; thenamewas
chosenas the teethof thishalfbeak
are slightly reminiscentof thoseof
thedinosaurTyrannosaurus rex.
ebrardtii: named inhonorofHerr
Geheimrat Ebrardt.
Unfortunatelyall the17 specimensof thenewhalfbeaksknown todateare females.
Thenewhalfbeak arrivedasabycatchwith these
Nomorhamphusebrardtii
.
Literatur
:
Evers,H.-G. (2013):DieHalbschnabelhechte
Sulawesis.Amazonas9 (4): 22-39
Huylebrouck,J.,Hadiaty,R.K.&F.Herder
(2012):Nomorhamphus rex,anewspeciesof
viviparoushalfbeak (Atherinomorpha: Beloni-
formes:Zenarchopteridae) endemic toSula-
wesi Selatan, Indonesia.TheRafflesBulletinof
Zoology60 (2):477-485
Huylebrouck,J. (2013):Lebendgebärende
Halbschnäblerder FamilieZenerachopteri-
dae.Amazonas9 (4):14-21
Kempkes,M.&F.Schäfer (1998):AlleLebend-
gebärenden.Mörfelden-Walldorf,352pp
Museum Alexander König in Bonn, as he
works scientificallywith halfbeaks andwas
alsotheseniorauthorofthedescriptionof
No-
morhamphus rex
.On thebasisof thephotos
he toowasunable toassign thenewspecies
toanyspeciesofhalfbeakknown tohim,but
inclined towardsamemberof thegenus
No-
morhamphus
. However, the generic place-
mentofhalfbeakscanbedeterminedunequi-
vocallyonlybyexaminationofthecopulatory
organofthemale,theso-calledandropodium,
underthemicroscope.
I immediatelypurchasedthetotalof17speci-
mensofthenewhalfbeak inthetankandput
them inatankoftheirownathomeforcloser
observation.Unfortunately theyareall fema-
les! Sothesegorgeous,individuallyveryvaria-
determined.And theirexactprovenance isn't
knowneither.Thecolorationofthe
N.ebrardtii
withwhich thespecieswas imported resem-
blesthatofthespecimensthatEvers intheal-
readymentionedAmazonasmagazinedescri-
besastheformfromBalambano,asdoestheir
relativelysmall size.
There isstill thehope thatoneof the females
of thenew speciesmayhavebeen fertilized
(female halfbeaks store sperm), and if the
youngthen includeamale,itmaybepossible
notonly to determinethespeciesbutalsoto
establishanaquarium strainof theseattrac-
tive fishes.Hence in the first instance I have
handed the fishesover toDieterBork,who is
veryexperienced inthebreedingofhalfbeaks.
Keepyour fingerscrossed,DearReaders!
ble,orange-checkered halfbeaks,whichmea-
surearound fivecentimeters long,cannotbe
