Oxynoemacheilus phasicus, a new nemacheilid loach from the eastern Black Sea basin with some remarks on other Caucasian Oxynoemacheilus (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)

Abstract

Oxynoemacheilus phasicus, new species, is described from the Rioni and Enguri River drainages in Georgia. It is distinguished from other Oxynoemacheilus species in the O. brandtii group by a mottled or marbled flank pattern in adults, a slightly emarginate caudal fin, and a deep caudal peduncle. Molecular data suggest that the new species is characterized by a minimum K2P distance of 7.5% from O. brandtii from the Kura drainage in the mtDNA COI barcode region. Oxynoemacheilus brandtii and O. elsae are re-diagnosed. A very slender Oxynoemacheilus from the Aras drainage clusters as sister to O. elsae in our molecular analysis and not with O. brandtii from the Kura River. However, it is identified as O. brandtii as it is indistinguishable from this species in morphological characters.

Two new Oxynoemacheilus species in western Anatolia (Teleostei, Nemacheilidae)

“…Freyhof et al (2011) list 41 species as valid in that genus, and Kottelat (2012) also included O. oxianus from the Central Asian Amu-Darya drainage. Since, Çiçek et al (2018); Erk`akan (2012); Freyhof (2016); Freyhof et al ( , 2019Freyhof et al ( , 2021aFreyhof et al ( , 2021bFreyhof et al ( , 2022; Freyhof and Abdullah (2017); Freyhof and Geiger (2021); Freyhof and Özuluǧ (2017); Kamangar et al (2014); Kaya et al (2020Kaya et al ( , 2021; Saygun et al (2021); Sayyadzadeh et al (2016); Sungur et al (2017); Turan et al (2019); Yoğurtçuoğlu et al, ( , 2021b; Yoğurtçuoğlu et al (2022) described and re-validated additional species and we recognize 62 species of Oxynoemacheilus as valid. Oxynoemacheilus is one of the largest genera of freshwater fishes in the Western Palearctic.…”

Turcinoemacheilus ekmekciae, a new dwarf loach from upper Tigris and Euphrates (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae)

“…The taxonomic problems associated with the groups belonging to the family have been largely resolved with the studies carried out in recent years. Recent molecular (Bektaş et al, 2022; Geiger et al, 2014) and morphological (Kottelat, 2012) studies, such as generic revisions (Esmaeili et al, 2014; Freyhof et al, 2014, 2015; Yoğurtçuoğlu et al, 2020), identification of new taxa (e.g., Freyhof et al, 2016; Freyhof et al, 2019; Freyhof, Kaya, et al, 2021; Freyhof, Yoğurtçuoğlu, & Kaya, 2021; Kaya et al, 2021; Kaya, Turan, Bayçelebi, et al, 2020; Kaya, Turan, Kalayci, et al, 2020; Yoğurtçuoğlu, Kaya, & Freyhof, 2021; Yoğurtçuoğlu, Kaya, Özuluğ, & Freyhof, 2021; Yoğurtuoğlu et al, 2022), and taxonomic re‐evaluations (Freyhof et al, 2012) have supported the resolution of these problems.…”

An ichthyofaunal amendment with the length-weight relations and condition factors of some endemic and invasive freshwater fishes from Western Anatolia

“…The genus Oxynoemacheilus is the most species-rich genus of the family, containing 61 species which inhabit the Middle East, and Oxynoemacheilus eliasi is one of the newest members of it, that has been described from the Gediz, Küçük Menderes and Tahtalı River basins in Western Anatolia (Yoğurtçuoğlu et al 2022). Because the genus is very diverse, taxonomic studies are still trying to distinguish the genus (e.g., Freyhof et al 2019Freyhof et al , 2021Turan et al 2019;Kaya et al 2020). In recent studies, 34 species of Oxynoemacheilus in Türkiye (Çiçek et al 2022) and 15 species of Oxynoemacheilus in Iran (Mouludi-Saleh et al 2023) were investigated in terms of LWRs and CF.…”