The Tilapias of Lake Malawi

All the tilapias (genera Coptodon, Oreochromis, and Tilapia) that are known, or have been reported, to occur in Lake Malawi are listed below, along with notation of their endemicity.

Note on the subgenera of Oreochromis: Except for Oreochromis shiranus, all L. Malawi Oreochromis species have been placed in the subgenus Nyasalapia Thys van den Audenaerde (1968), which also includes species not found in L. Malawi. Trewavas (1983: 28) identified the type species of this subgenus as Chromis squamipinnis Günther, 1864 [=Oreochromis squamipinnis], by original designation of Thys. Eschmeyer's (1990) hard-cover Catalog of the Genera of Recent Fishes considered the name Nyasalapia to be not available; it was said to have been published with no included species and no description. However, the current on-line version of the Catalog of Fishes now recognizes Nyasalapia as a valid name and accepted as a subgenus of Oreochromis, so it would appear that Trewavas was correct all along.