Aphanius arakensis, a new species of tooth-carp (Actinopterygii, Cyprinodontidae) from the endorheic Namak Lake basin in Iran

Abstract

A new species of tooth-carp, Aphanius arakensis sp. n., is described from the Namak Lake basin in Iran. The new species is distinguished by the congeners distributed in Iran by the following combination of characters: 10–12 anal fin rays, 28–32 lateral line scales, 10–13 caudal peduncle scales, 8–10 gill rakers, 12–19, commonly 15–16, clearly defined flank bars in males, a more prominent pigmentation along the flank added by relatively big blotches in the middle and posterior flank segments in females, a short but high antirostrum of the otolith that has a wide excisura, and a ventral rim with some small, drop-like processes, and 19 molecular apomorphies (17 transitions, two transversions) in the cytochrome b gene. It was suggested based on the phylogenetic analysis that the new species is sister to Aphanius sophiae from the Kor River and that Aphanius farsicus from the Maharlu Lake basin is sister to Aphanius arakensis plus Aphanius sophiae. A noticeable feature of the Aphanius diversity in Iran is the conservatism of the external morphology as well as morphometric and meristic characters, while distinctive differences are present in genetic characters, otolith morphology, and male color pattern. Transformation of the latter was probably driven by sexual selection.

Comparative morphology of urohyal bone in brackish water species of the genus Aphanius Nardo, 1827 in the Persian Gulf and Southeastern Mediterranean Sea basins (Teleostei: Aphaniidae)

“…In this group, A. hormuzensis from Hormuzgan is clustered with A. stoliczkanus from the Mond basin. This is in agreement with the results of Teimori et al (2012a) where they analysed fish body and otolith morphology and found a close relationship between these two species (Teimori et al, 2012a;page 301, Fig. 6).…”

“…As mentioned above, most of the Aphanius species are similar in their external morphology, which has made them a difficult fish group to be identified for several years (Coad, 2000;Teimori et al, 2012a;Hrbek et al, 2006). Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate whether the urohyal bone morphology would be able to discriminate the selected Aphanius species.…”

“…Even though the members of the genus Aphanius can be separated by using molecular markers in term of phylogeny, it is difficult to distinguish them by considering only fish external morphology even in multivariate spaces (Teimori et al, 2012a). Therefore, it is necessary to accomplish comparative analyses and investigate morphological characteristics of the hard structures such as scales (e.g.…”

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“…The recent studies have suggested that active geological history of the Zagros Mountains has considerably influenced diversification of the animals in the studied region especially reptiles and freshwater fishes (Rastegar-Pouyani and Nilson, 2002;Hrbek et al, 2006;Teimori et al, 2012). It is particularly true in the case of freshwater fishes because of their especial pattern of distribution, in which geologic divergence can act as a major physical barrier and produce several allopatric populations.…”

Aphanius sophiae (Actinoptrygii, Cyprinodontidae), a new host for Ichthyophthirius multifiliis (Ciliophora) reported from Iran

“…Iran is considered as a center for Aphanius diversity, with 14 species recognized and their distribution area include both freshwater and brackish water bodies (Teimori et al 2012;Gholami et al 2014a;Esmaeili et al 2014). Among 14 described Aphanius species in Iran, A. sophiae (Heckel, 1849) or soffia tooth-carp is endemic species restricted to the endorheic Kor River basin (Teimori et al 2012;Gholami et al 2014b).…”