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Nothos

 A further note to the matter raised by Julian Haffegee about the identity of the TAN 97/45 and TAN 97/14 Nothos:

For reference, Julian wrote:

>      Can anyone tell me what these 2 nothos look like? I understand 97/45
>soga is a gue, - is it very different? What about 97/14 ?? I don't suppose 
>there are pictures on the web.

Both Barry Cooper and I replied providing explanations as to the identity of these Nothos. Refer to KillieTalk Digest V2 #37.

Today I received my January issue of the BKA Killi-News and I noticed that Bob Gunn is advertising eggs of N. sp. TAN 97/14 and "N. guentheri TAN 97/45 Soga". Obviously, this is the source of the confusion and the reason for Julian's question.

In October, 1997 I took eggs of N. sp. TAN 97/14, N. foerschi Soga TAN 97/45 and N. guentheri Zanzibar TAN 97/4 and TAN 97/2 (among other species) to the BKA convention and Bob was the recipient of some of these. The stock that Bob has must derive from those eggs.

The bags of eggs that I distributed at the BKA convention were clearly labelled as to both species name and location code so it would appear that there has been a subsequent error made in the listing of these species. 

One thing you can be absolutely certain about is that there is no such Notho as "N. guentheri Tan 97/45 Soga". As Barry and I have already pointed out, the 97/45 code refers, in this instance, to N. foerschi Soga TAN 97/45.  Soga is on the Tanzania mainland just west of Dar es Salaam and N. guentheri is restricted to the island of Zanzibar.

Therefore, the Notho that Bob is advertising as "N. guentheri Tan 97/45 Soga" is either N. foerschi Soga TAN 97/45 or one of the populations of N. guentheri that we collected on Zanzibar Island, i.e. N. guentheri Zanzibar TAN 97/2 or N. guentheri Zanzibar TAN 97/4.

My suggestion to Julian is that he telephone Bob Gunn and point out the above facts to him so that he can correct the name before too many batches of eggs are distributed with either the wrong species name or the wrong code (whichever the case may be).

N. guentheri and N. foerschi are quite different in appearance so Bob should be able to sort out the confusion fairly easily.

Brian R. Watters
University of Regina
Regina, Saskatchewan S4S 0A2, Canada
Ph: (306) 584-9161 (home); (306) 585-4663 (work)
Fax: (306) 585-5433
E-mail: bwatters at sk_sympatico.ca