Table 1.
Species examined in a linear discriminant function analysis of ecomorphology of sediment-sifting and non-sifting cichlids.
Figure 1.
Species of Neotropical cichlids used in foraging experiments.
A Geophagus cf. brachybranchus, B ‘Geophagus’ steindachneri, C Mikrogeophagus altispinosus, D Satanoperca daemon, E Thorichthys ellioti (picture shown is of the congeneric T. cf meeki), F Amatitlania siquia, G Hypsophrys nematopus. Phylogeny and times of divergence follow López-Fernández et al. [15].
Figure 2.
Linear discriminant function analysis (LDA) of morphological attributes in 27 species of Neotropical cichlids.
LDA produced an axis of variation that effectively separated non-sifters (top panel) from specialized sediment-sifting species (bottom panel) by their morphological attributes. Among sediment-sifters, the model distribution to the left represents individuals “misclassified” by the LDA analysis as non-sifters, including Thorichthys ellioti (5/5), Mikrogeophagus ramirezi (4/4) and Biotodoma wavrini (1/5). Images marked with an “*” depict genera used in feeding efficiency experiments.
Table 2.
Coefficients of the linear discriminant function of ecomorphology for each variable examined.
Figure 3.
Mean consumption of chironomid larvae buried at 0, 1, 2, or 3-sifting (2 species) and sediment-sifting (5) Neotropical cichlids.
Consumption by each species is illustrated in S2.
Figure 4.
Mean consumption of chironomid larvae buried at 0, 1, 2, or 3 cm depth by the heroine Neotropical cichlid Hypsophrys nematopus.
Even (filled circles) versus clumped (empty triangles) distributions. The horizontal line indicates weight loss of chironomid larvae in control tanks.