Table 2.

Chonopeltis lisikiliVan As and Van As (1996) males and larval stages collected from Synodontis Cuvier, 1816 species from the Okavango Delta, Botswana (Van As and Van As, 1996, 2015) and Synodontis zambezensis Peters, 1852 from the Phongolo River, South Africa (present study). OD = Okavango Delta; PR = Phongolo River. * Young male.

Developmental stage	3rd		4th		5th		6th		7th		8th		9th		Sub-adult		Adult
Locality	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	PR	OD	OD	PR
Number measured	19	4	0	2	28	0	41	0	29	8	0	10	3	0	0	10	*1	3	4
Total Length (TL)	1.2	1.3	–	1.4	1.5	–	1.8	–	1.9	1.9	–	2.2	2.4	–	–	2.6	2.5	2.4	2.9
Carapace Length (CL)	0.6	0.6	–	0.7	0.8	–	0.9	–	1	1	–	1.1	1.3	–	–	1.4	1.3	1.5	1.6
CL % of TL	53	47	–	46	56	–	53	–	52	51	–	50	54	–	–	54	52	63	57
Length of anterior lobe (LAC)	0.2	0.3	–	0.3	0.2	–	0.2	–	0.3	0.3	–	0.4	0.5	–	–	0.6	0.3	0.6	0.7
LAC % of CL	27	42	–	45	21	–	26	–	28	32	–	37	39	–	–	40	24	40	43
Carapace Width (CW)	0.8	0.8	–	0.9	1	–	1.1	–	1.3	1.2	–	1.3	1.4	–	–	1.6	1.5	1.4	1.8
Width of anterior lobe (WAC)	0.4	0.6	–	0.6	0.5	–	0.6	–	0.6	0.7	–	0.8	1	–	–	0.9	0.8	0.9	1
WAC % of CW	53	72	–	64	48	–	51	–	50	60	–	57	71	–	–	56	53	64	60
Sucker diameter (SD)	0.2	–	–	0.2	0.2	–	0.3	–	0.4	0.3	–	0.3	0.4	–	–	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4
SD % of TL	17	–	–	14	13	–	17	–	21	16	–	15	17	–	–	15	16	16	15
Abdomen Length (AL)	0.3	0.3	–	0.4	0.5	–	0.6	–	0.7	0.7	–	0.7	0.8	–	–	0.8	0.8	0.8	1
AL % of TL	24	25	–	30	35	–	34	–	34	35	–	34	33	–	–	31	31	33	34
Length of fused part (LF)	0.2	0.3	–	0.3	0.4	–	0.4	–	0.5	0.5	–	0.5	0.5	–	–	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7
LF % of AL	76	82	–	76	74	–	73	–	73	73	–	69	67	–	–	65	63	75	77
Length of cleft (LC)	0.1	0.1	–	0.1	0.1	–	0.2	–	0.2	0.2	–	0.2	0.3	–	–	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.3
LC % of AL	24	20	–	23	26	–	27	–	27	27	–	31	33	–	–	36	37	25	27
Abdomen Width	0.3	0.3	–	0.4	0.4	–	0.4	–	0.4	0.4	–	0.5	0.5	–	–	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.5