Taxonomic revision of the genus Carasobarbus Karaman, 1971 (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae)

Abstract

Representatives of the fish genus Carasobarbus Karaman, 1971 (Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae) from the Middle East and North Africa were previously placed in 14 different genus-group taxa (Barbellion, Barbus, Barynotus, Capoeta, Carasobarbus, Cyclocheilichthys, Kosswigobarbus, Labeobarbus, Luciobarbus, Pseudotor, Puntius, Systomus, Tor and Varicorhinus). The generic assignment of several species changed frequently, necessitating a re-evaluation of their taxonomic status. In this study, the genus Carasobarbus is revised based on comparative morphological examinations of about 1300 preserved specimens from collections of several museums and freshly collected material. The species Carasobarbus apoensis, Carasobarbus canis, Carasobarbus chantrei, Carasobarbus exulatus, Carasobarbus fritschii, Carasobarbus harterti, Carasobarbus kosswigi, Carasobarbus luteus and Carasobarbus sublimus form a monophyletic group that shares the following combination of characters: medium-sized barbels with a smooth last unbranched dorsal-fin ray, nine or 10 branched dorsal-fin rays and six branched anal fin-rays; scales large, shield-shaped, with many parallel radii; the lateral line containing 25 to 39 scales; the pharyngeal teeth hooked, 2.3.5-5.3.2 or 2.3.4-4.3.2; one or two pairs of barbels. The species are described in detail, their taxonomic status is re-evaluated and an identification key is provided. A lectotype of Systomus luteus Heckel, 1843 is designated. Carasobarbus Karaman, 1971, Kosswigobarbus Karaman, 1971, and Pseudotor Karaman, 1971 are subjective synonyms, and acting as First Reviser we gave precedence to the name Carasobarbus.

Taxonomy of rheophilic <em>Luciobarbus</em> Heckel, 1842 (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae) from Morocco with the description of two new species

“…So far there were no available studies on the population structure of the rheophilic barbs of the four Moroccan basins in which they occur: Moulouya Basin, on the Mediterranean slope, and Oum er Rbia, Tensift, and Kasab basins, on the Atlantic slope (Almaça, 1970;Doadrio, 1994;Borkenhagen & Krupp, 2013). This lack of population studies compounds confusion about the type locality of Luciobarbus nasus and has hindered the taxonomic work.…”

“…It is probable that the two syntypes of Barbus nasus came from material collected in the Kasab River near Mogador by K. v. Fritsch and J. Rein in 1872 (Borkenhagen & Krupp, 2013).…”

Consideraciones taxonómicas sobre <em>Barbus moulouyensis</em> Pellegrin, 1924 (Actinopterygii, Cyprinidae) con la descripción de una especie nueva de <em>Luciobarbus</em> Heckel, 1843 de Marruecos

“…In Moulouya Basin an endemic species, Barbus moulouyensis Pellegrin, 1924, was described on the basis of the morphological traits of one single individual of Carasobarbus. However some traits of "Barbus" moulouyensis as the morphology of the scales or the last dorsal fin ray denticulated were typical characters of genus Luciobarbus not of Carasobarbus (Doadrio, 1990;Borkenhagen & Krupp, 2013). Thus, the presence of traits of Carasobarbus and Luciobarbus placed "Barbus" moulouyensis in an uncertain taxonomic position.…”

“…Posterior phylogenetic studies based on morphological and molecular traits have placed the diploids, tetraploids and hexaploids barbel species from North Africa in different genera (Machordom & Doadrio, 2001a;Levin et al, 2012;Borkenhagen & Krupp, 2013;Casal-López et al, 2015;Yang et al, 2015;Beshera et al, 2016). Thus, diploid species were placed in the genus Enteromius Cope, 1867, tetraploids in Luciobarbus Heckel, 1843 and all hexaploid species in Carasobarbus Karaman, 1971, except "Barbus" reinii Günther, 1874 that remains without a clear generic assignation.…”

“…The genus Luciobarbus is composed of two different group of species: reophilic species of small body size and limnetic species of medium-large size (Doadrio, 1990;Doadrio et al, 2016). The genus Carasobarbus in Morocco is constituted by C. fritschii (Günther, 1874), a cosmopolitan species of small body size, and C. harterti (Günther, 1901), a species of large body size that inhabit only the large basins of the Atlantic slope from Morocco (Borkenhagen & Krupp, 2013).…”