Osteology and redescription of the miniature lampeye species of Congopanchax Poll, 1971 with an overview of miniature African freshwater fishes

The Congo endemic genus Congopanchax is distinguished from all other Procatopodidae by the presence of the following exclusive character states: presence of ventral cleft in the anguloarticular, absence of premaxilla posterior margin indentation, autopalatine anterior margin concave, parhypural not contacting or slightly overlapping the hypural plate, dorsal fin bilobate, with first two and last dorsal-fin rays filamentous, infraorbital bar present and longitudinal stripe on ventral midline reaching isthmus. Congopanchax myersi and C. brichardi are redescribed and distinguished from each other by colouration in life and morphometrics. An updated list of African freshwater miniature species containing a total of 58 species is presented, including information about their distribution, habitat and conservation status. The diversity of miniature fish species in Africa is probably underestimated, and the orders Cyprinodontiformes (36%) and Cypriniformes (26%) include the highest proportion of miniatures followed by the Characiformes (17%) and the Siluriformes (15 %). In total, about half of the miniature species have not been evaluated (29%) regarding their conservation status or are data deficient (19 %).