Cobitis anabelae, Freyhof & Bayçelebi & Geiger, 2018

Freyhof, Jörg, Bayçelebi, Esra & Geiger, Matthias, 2018, Review of the genus Cobitis in the Middle East, with the description of eight new species (Teleostei: Cobitidae), Zootaxa 4535 (1), pp. 1-75 : 48-51

Cobitis anabelae , new species

( Fig. 36–38 )

Holotype. ZFMK ICH-98633 , 53 mm SL; Turkey: Hatay prov.: Karasu River about 4 km south of Kırıkhan, 36.465 36.380.

Paratypes. FSJF 2428 , 11 , 43–82 mm SL; same data as holotype . — FSJF 2399 , 6 , 45–58 mm SL; Turkey: Hatay prov.: Orontes River at Sinanlı, 36.097 36.079 .— FSJF 2674 , 3 , 55–69 mm SL; Syria: Orontes River north of Ain al Zarqa, 35.944 36.402 .

Material used in molecular genetic analysis. FSJF DNA-360; Turkey: Hatay prov.: Karasu River about 4 km south of Kırıkhan, 36.465 36.380. (BOLD accession number: EUFWF4176-18).

Diagnosis. Cobiti s anabelae is distinguished from other Cobitis species in the Asian Mediterranean Sea basin by a combination of characters, none of them unique. It is distinguished from C. levantina by the pigmentation in Z2 formed by small, brown spots, always much smaller than the blotches in Z3, much smaller than the eye or pupil diameter (vs. blotches in Z2 usually ½ of size or as large as in Z3, usually both about eye or pupil diameter), Z2 and Z3 well separated from each other (vs. often forming one confluent marbled pattern) and no pigmentation or very few isolated brown spots below Z4 and on lower caudal peduncle (many small, dark-brown spots or blotches on lower part of caudal peduncle, reaching forward to pectoral-fin base in some individuals).

Cobitis anabelae is distinguished from C. aliyeae by having usually a series of unregularly shaped, often fused blotches in Z2, large blotches in Z4, usually larger than eye (vs. usually smaller), a shorter preanal distance (75– 79% SL vs. 80–85), a greater prepelvic length in the female (53–55% SL vs. 56–60) and a longer caudal-peduncle length in the female (15–18% SL vs. 11–14).

Cobitis anabelae is distinguished from C. evreni by lacking the pelvic axillary lobe (vs. present), having a black spot at the uppermost caudal-fin base (vs. absent) and by colour pattern. In C. anabelae , the pigmentation in Z2 and Z4 consists of distinct, roundish, brown blotches on the anterior part of the flank, roundish or vertically elongated and widely separated on the posterior part of the flank, not fused to each other (vs. a dark-brown stripe reaching from above the pectoral-fin base until the vertical of the anus or beyond).

Cobitis anabelae is distinguished from C. battalgilae by having always a single row of blotches in Z4, blotches slightly irregularly shaped, roundish or squarish anterior to the dorsal-fin origin, roundish or vertically elongated and widely separated on the posterior part of the flank (vs. blotches in Z4 usually vertically elongate and often dissociated into a band of small, irregularly-shaped blotches and spots), the axially pelvic lobe or pad absent (vs. present at least in some individuals) and the interorbital distance 7–11% HL in the male (vs. 14–16).

Cobitis anabelae is distinguished from C. sipahilerae by having a series of distinct, roundish or squarish, darkbrown blotches in Z4 (vs. blotches in Z4 often fused into a stripe) and 4–6 large, roundish and dark-brown blotches on the back anterior to the dorsal-fin origin (vs. back plain cream-brown, except few individuals with 1–3 narrow, squarish, brown bars).

Cobitis anabelae is distinguished from C. elazigensis by lacking the pelvic axillary lobe (vs. present) and C. anabelae grows to a much smaller size (female up to 80 mm SL vs. 160 mm SL in C. elazigensis ). Cobitis anabelae , is distinguished from C. linea by the pigmentation in Z4 consisting of distinct, large, dark-brown blotches, usually horizontally elongated on the anterior body, roundish or vertically elongated on caudal peduncle, not fused (vs. Z4 with very small and roundish or comma-shaped blotches along its whole length, blotches very densely set and often fused into stripes or dissociated into a field of several rows of blotches).

Description. See Figures 36–38 for general appearance and Table 4 for morphometric data of the holotype and 9 paratypes. Greatest body depth at or slightly anterior to dorsal-fin origin, decreasing towards caudal-fin base. Head profile slightly convex, head length 1.2–1.6 times in body depth. Snout pointed, its length 0.6–0.8 times in postorbital length. Eye diameter 0.2–0.3 times in head depth at eye, 0.9–1.9 times in interorbital width. Caudal peduncle 1.1–1.7 times longer than deep.

No pelvic axillary lobe or pad. Margin of dorsal fin convex, margin of anal fin convex. Caudal fin truncate. No dorsal keel, a shallow ventral keel on caudal peduncle, external part of the suborbital spine bifurcate, reaching slightly beyond centre of eye. Largest recorded specimen 80 mm SL.

Dorsal fin with 3 unbranched and 6½ branched rays. Anal fin with 3 unbranched 5½ branched rays. Caudal fin with 7+7 branched rays. Pectoral fin with 7 (5) and 8 (11) branched rays and pelvic fin with 5 branched rays. Body completely covered by embedded scales, except on belly and breast. Scales small. Focal zone in subdorsal scales about 3/5 or 4/5 of vertical scale diameter. Lateral line absent. Lips ( Fig. 54 ) thin and mental lobes of lower lip short, poorly separate from lower lip, without process. Rostral barbel reaching base of mandibular barbel. Mandibular barbel reaching to or slightly beyond vertical of nostril. Maxillary barbel rarely reaching vertical of front border of eye.

Sexual dimorphism. Male have a longer pectoral fin than female (19–21% SL vs. 15–17) and two laminae circularis (vs. none).

Colouration. Background colour whitish with a dark-brown pigmentation pattern organised in one mid-dorsal and four lateral zones. Mid-dorsal pigmentation consisting in a series of 7–11 dark-brown, roundish blotches. Pigmentation in Z1 with many spots and blotches, often forming a marbled pattern, pigmented part narrower than in in Z2, reaching dorsally to interspaces of mid-dorsal blotches. Blotches in Z2 of larger than eye size, usually horizontally elongate, not fused to each other. Pigmentation in Z2 fused with pigmentation in Z1 and Z3 on caudal peduncle in some individuals. Pigmentation in Z3 absent in juveniles, formed by a line or a very narrow band of very small spots in adults. No pigmentation below Z4 except in few individuals having single, very small spots on lower flank. 4–6 predorsal, 2–3 subdorsal and 4–8 postdorsal blotches in Z4, blotches roundish, squarish, irregularly triangular or fused to a short stripe. A single, very small, often indistinct black spot at upper caudal-fin base. Upper part of head, opercle and snout covered by small spots. A dark-brown stripe between eye and snout. Fins hyaline. Caudal fin with 5–8 and dorsal fin with 4–6 dark-brown, very narrow, sometimes irregular set bars. Few dark-brown spots in paired fins in some individuals. Barbels whitish.

Etymology. Named for Anabel Perdices (Madrid) who dedicated parts of her scientific life to the research on the diversity and phylogeny of the genus Cobitis . A noun in genitive, indeclinable.

Distribution. Cobitis anabelae is found in the lower reaches of the Orontes River drainage in Turkey and Syria.

Remarks. Molecular data place C. anabelae in the C. linea species group ( C. aliyeae , C. linea , C. elazigensis , C. erkakanae , C. levantina , Fig. 1 ). Cobitis anabelae is superficially similar to C. aliyeae from the adjacent Ceyhan and Seyhan River drainages. Based on DNA barcoding it is well separated from all other included Cobitis , and by a minimum K2P distance of 6.6% to C. levantina and 8.7% to C. aliyeae . It is also supported by the PTP approach as distinct entity.

Our coverage of COI data is not completely mirrored by Perdices et al. (2018). Perdices et al. (2018) materials of Cobitis levantina is indeed the species described here as C. anabelae . While we have only one COI sequence of C. anabelae, Perdices et al. (2018) analysed the Cytochrome B sequence from the very same individual as we do and they have an additional three sequences of this species, all being very similar, supporting our conclusion based on one sequence only.

Cobitis anabelae is found in the lower part of the Orontes River while C. levantina occurs in the upper Orontes. Already Krupp & Moubayed (1992) restrict the range of C. levantina to the upper Orontes, while Krupp (1985) intensively collected fishes also in the lower Orontes, not finding any Cobitis . Erk'akan et al. (1999) are the first to report C. levantina from the Turkish part of the lower Orontes. Cobitis anabelae is well distinguished from C. levantina by molecular characters and by differences in the colour pattern bases on our materials (see remarks on C. levantina above).

See below for details to distinguish C. anabelae from other Cobitis species found in the Asian Mediterranean Sea basin.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Maximum likelihood estimation of the phylogenetic relationships based on the mitochondrial COI barcode region (TN93 model, discrete Gamma distribution for rate differences with 3 categories +G parameter = 0.3792. Nucleotide positions with less than 95% site coverage were eliminated, resulting in 590 analysed positions. Numbers of major nodes indicate bootstrap values from 1000 pseudoreplicates from the ML, NJ and MP method. A star denotes highest possible support from all three methods. Solid bars right to the specimen labels indicate species delimitation results from PTP followed by the results of the mPTP approach as dashed bars. Except to the outgroups and the branch to the right part of the figure, the tree is drawn to scale with branch lengths depicting number of substitutions per site.

FIGURE 36. Cobitis anabelae, left column from the top: males, ZFMK ICH-98633, holotype, 53 mm SL; paratypes, FSJF 2428, 51 mm SL, 57 mm SL; right column from the top: females, 54 mm SL, 76 mm SL, 82 mm SL; Turkey: Karasu River.

FIGURE 37. Cobitis anabelae, left column from the top: males, ZFMK ICH-98633, holotype, 53 mm SL; paratypes, FSJF 2428, 51 mm SL, 57 mm SL; right column from the top: females, 54 mm SL, 76 mm SL, 82 mm SL; Turkey: Karasu River.

FIGURE 38. Cobitis anabelae, from the top: FSJF 2428, holotype, male, 53 mm SL; female, 80 mm SL; Turkey: Karasu River.

FIGURE 54. Upper row: Cobitis afifeae, FSJF 3022, paratype, 76 mm SL; Turkey: Büyük Menderes River; C. aliyeae, FSJF 2427, paratype, female, 65 mm SL; Turkey: Seyhan River; C. anabelae, ZFMK ICH-98633, holotype, male, 53 mm SL; Turkey: Karasu River; C. emrei, FSJF 1960, paratype, female, 77 mm SL; Turkey: Lake Sapanca basin; Lower row: C. erkakanae, FSJF 2510, paratype, female, 68 mm SL; Turkey: canal at Lake Gölbaşı; C. joergbohleni, ZFMK ICH-97624, holotype, female, 60 mm SL; Turkey: spring Soysallı; C. pirii, FSJF 2474, paratype, female, 95 mm SL; Turkey: streams Çayköy; C. troasensis, FSJF 2383, paratype, female, 72 mm SL; Turkey: stream Tuzla.