| Geophagini is a tribe of cichlids from the subfamily Cichlinae, the American cichlids. It is the sister taxon to the clade which includes the Cichlasomatini and Heroini. Fishes in the Geophagini are distributed from Panama south to Argentina, it is the most speciose of the seven tribes within the Cichlinae and it is subdivided into three sub-tribes, Acarichthyina, Crenicaratina, and Geophagina which together contain over 200 species. Geophagines show morphological and behavioural specialisations to enable them to sift the substrates within their mouths so that they can separate benthic invertebrates from substrates dominated by sand or silt. |
