Allotoca meeki, commonly known as the Zirahuen allotoca or the tiro de Zirahuén, is a species of fish endemic to Lake Zirahuén, a small endorheic mountain lake in Michoacán state of central Mexico.[2]
Allotoca meeki | |
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Conservation status | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Cyprinodontiformes |
Family: | Goodeidae |
Genus: | Allotoca |
Species: | A. meeki |
Binomial name | |
Allotoca meeki (Álvarez, 1959) | |
Synonyms[2] | |
Neoophorus meeki Álvarez, 1959 |
The specific name honours the American ichthyologist Seth Eugene Meek (1859-1914) who wrote the first review of the fishes of Mexico.[3]
The Zirahuén allotoca is critically endangered. The species has a small range, limited to a single lake basin. Two non-native predatory species of bass (Micropterus salmoides and M. punctulatus) were introduced to Lake Zirahuén in 1933, and by the 1990s the allotoca had been extirpated from the lake.[1]
A population survived in the Estanque de Condempas in Opopeo, a small lake on the Río El Silencio tributary of Lake Zirahuén. Bass invaded the estanque in the 2000s, and by 2011 no allotocas could be found there. As of 2017 a few allotocas have survived in an outlet of the lake, and in a nearby spring-fed pond where bass are also found.[1]
Taxon identifiers |
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