Xenotilapia sp. "katete"

Xenotilapia sp. 'katete' was discovered by Horst Walter Dieckhoff and first mentioned in the literature in 1988 (Konings 1988).

Xenotilapia sp. 'katete' has a close resemblance with X. papilio and another potentially undescribed species, X. sp. "papilio sunflower", but differ by having light-blue to clear pelvis fins where these are yellow in both X. papilio and X. sp. 'papilio sunflower' (Konings, 1998). X. sp. 'katete' also has a deeper body, a shorter snout, bigger oval eyes, and a different form of the dorsal and ventral fins and is also slightly smaller than X. papilio measuring only 7 cm in total length, whereas X. papilio grows to app. 10 cm.

Xenotilapia sp. 'katete' is only found between Kapampa in Congo and Katete in Zambia - there are no geographical variations known along its distributional range (Konings, 1998).

It seems that Xenotilapia sp. 'katete' occupy a different ecological niche than X. papilio and X. sp. 'papilio sunflower', preferring the deep intimidate habitat between the steep rocks and sandfloor (Krüter, 1991), whereas the latter two species normally are found in the pure sediment-rich rocky habitat (Konings, 1998).

The formal description of Xenotilapia sp. 'katete' by Dr. Jos Snoeks and Sébastian Verne should be at hand, but apparently still awaits publication (Genevelle 2002).