Marcusenius mento

General description: 

From the original description, Boulenger, 1890:

D. 29. A. 36. V. 6. L. lat. 85. L. tr. H.

Snout short, curved, once and a half the diameter of the eye, 3/10ths the length of the head. Mouth terminal, on a line with the lower border of the eye, its width one fifth the length of the head. Teeth moderately large, notched, five in the upper jaw, six in the lower. Diameter of the eye one fifth its length, about two thirds the width of the interorbital space. Chin strongly swollen. Origin of the dorsal halfway between the gill-opening and the caudal, and above the ninth ray of the anal. Pectoral as long as its distance from the nostrils, extending a little beyond the base of the ventral, which measures nearly half the length of the head. Depth of body 3 ½  times in total length (without caudal), length of caudal peduncle 5 ½  times; depth of caudal peduncle one fourth its length. 12 scales round the caudal peduncle. Silvery, with fine brown dots, which are very crowded on the head and the dorsal and ventral lines. Total length 190 millim.

Closely allied to M. senegalensis, Stdr., from which it is distinguished by the smaller scales and the more slender caudal peduncle, and to M. cyprinoides, L., which has smaller teeth and a deeper caudal peduncle surrounded by 16 scales.

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Distribution: Sierra Leone, Guinea-Bissau and Liberia. Known from Cameroon and the Guinea-West Liberia region as well as in the Gambia, Senegal and the upper Niger River.  Type locality from Gabon is disputed.  See Bigorne, 1990.

Behaviour: 

Unknown.

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith