A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE DISTRIBUTION AND MORPHOLOGY OF THE EXTERNAL TASTE BUDS IN THE SILUROID FISHES, MALUPTERUS ELECTRICUS AND CLARIAS LAZERA

The present work aimed to explore the morphology and the distribution of the different taste buds in the different regions of barbells, lips and skin of two different fishes; Malupterus electricus and Clarias lazera collected from the Nile River at Kaffr El-zayate city. Both fishes are carnivore; however they live in different habitats, the first lives among rocks or roots in turbid or black waters with low visibility and the second dwells the shallow water. On the basis of external surface morphology, four types of taste buds (TBs) are distinguished in the epithelial skin surface, lips and barbells of M. electricus. On other hand, only three types of TBs are observed in the skin surface, lips, and barbells of C. lazera. Taste buds in the barbells, lips, and skin of M. electricus are higher in density and larger in size than in C. lazera. There are no histological differences between the TBs of both fish. It is suggested that the variable density of taste buds in the epidermis in the two studied fish may be associated with their different habitats.