This subspecies was found at the same locality as N. leleupi , namely the northwestern Zairean coast, near Bemba. In 1986 Poll, in his revision of the Tanganyika cichlids, placed the subspecies melas in synonymy with N. leleupi leleupi and gave the subspecies longior the status of a species. The yellow individuals are thus just lacking the black colour. In Lake Tanganyika polychromatic individuals are also known to occur in other species. Personal observations have revealed that N. mustax also shows polychromatism.
Cichlids show polychromatism in other water systems as well.
The yellow N. leleupi is thus one morph of a polychromatic species. At several locations it seems that the yellow morph is more frequently seen than the dark one, although N. leleupi is a rare species at most locations. The dark morph is of course less conspicuous than its yellow counterpart, but it does not seem to occur at all localities where yellow individuals are found. At Cap Tembwe, Zaire, I observed several yellow individuals of N. leleupi but no dark ones. The same is true for two localities south of Cap Tembwe, Kitumba and M'toto.