Cobitis phrygica Battalgazi, 1944

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 : 25-26

Cobitis phrygica Battalgazi, 1944

( Fig. 19 )

Cobitis phrygica Battalgazi, 1944: 300 , fig. 1 (type locality: Turkey: prov.: Afyonkarahisar, Aci Göl [Lake Acigöl, 37.816 29.883]).

Material examined. FSJF 2013 , 9 , 56–79 mm SL; Turkey: Burdur prov.: stream north of Bucak at main road to Burdur , 37.512 30.541.— FSJF 2375 , 26 , 59–119 mm SL; Turkey: Muğla prov.: stream Eşen at Kınık Fethiye, 36.827 29.560.— FSJF 2468 , 22 , 58–80 mm SL; Turkey: Denizli prov.: spring east of Gemiş at southern shore of Lake Acı , 37.773 29.845 .— FSJF 2572 , 15 , 46–94 mm SL; Turkey: Burdur prov.: spring Kırkpınar south of Karamusa, south of Tefenni , 37.184 29.756 .— FSJF 2584 , 3 , 72–96 mm SL; Turkey: Burdur prov.: stream north of Gölhisar at Çamköy bridge, 37.244 29.529 .— FSJF 3199 , 8 , 55–74 mm SL; Turkey: Burdur prov.: stream Salda at Salda, 37.522 29.638.

Material used in molecular genetic analysis. FSJF DNA 59 ; Turkey: Muğla prov.: stream Seki at Kınık Fethiye , 36.827 29.560. (GenBank accession numbers: KJ552867 , KJ552954 ) .— FSJF DNA-979 ; Turkey: Denizli prov.: spring east of Gemiş at southern shore of Lake Acı , 37.773, 29.845. (GenBank accession numbers: KJ552845 , KJ552900 , KJ553165 ) .— FSJF DNA-1565 ; Turkey: Burdur prov.: stream Salda at Salda , 37.522N 29.638E. ( BOLD accession numbers: BOLD EUFWF2537-18 , EUFWF2538-18 ) .— FSJF DNA-1083 ; Turkey: Burdur prov.: stream north of Gölhisar at Çamköy bridge, 37.244 29.529. ( BOLD accession number: EUFWF4377-18 ) .— FSJF DNA-1565 ; Turkey: Burdur prov.: stream Salda at Salda , 37.522 29.638. ( BOLD accession number: EUFWF2538-18 ) .— FSJF DNA-2832 ; Turkey: Muğla prov.: Eşen River about 1 km west of Kınık , 36.825 29.562. ( BOLD accession number: EUFWF2725-18 ) .

Diagnosis. Cobiti s phrygica can be distinguished from other Cobitis species in the Asian Mediterranean Sea basin and the endorheic basins in Central Anatolia by a combination of characters, none of them unique. It is superficially very similar to C. battalgilae and both species show a large and overlapping variability of colour patterns within and between populations. Cobitis phrygica is distinguished from C. battalgilae by lacking the black spot at the upper caudal-fin base (vs. present, often very small and comma-shaped), the anterior nare not reaching to the hint margin of the posterior nare when folded down (vs. reaching), having a simple external part of the suborbital spine (vs. bifurcate), a shorter caudal peduncle (11–14% SL vs. 14–16) and a smaller eye diameter in the male (14–15% HL vs. 16–20). Based on DNA barcodes both species differ by a minimum of 5.8% K2P distance.

Cobitis phrygica is distinguished from C. dorademiri and C. levantina by having a simple external part of the suborbital spine (vs. bifurcate), the flank pattern often completely or partly dissociated into small spots or irregularly-shaped blotches often reaching much below the lateral midline (vs. flank pattern usually organised in Gambetta zones and Z4 not dissociated in C. levantina or rarely dissociated into a field of spots and blotches in C. dorademiri ), having a narrower caudal peduncle (caudal-peduncle depth 0.7–0.9 times in caudal-peduncle length vs. 1.0– 1.2 in C. dorademiri ), lacking the black spot at the upper caudal-fin base (vs. present in C. levantina ) and the blotches in Z4 often fused or very densely set in individuals smaller than 50 mm SL (vs. well separated in C. levantina ).

Cobitis phrygica is distinguished from C. evreni by the blotches in Z4 or all Gambetta zones dissociated into spots and blotches in many individuals or formed by a series of midlateral blotches (vs. fused into a stripe anterior to the vertical of the anal-fin origin). Cobitis phrygica is distinguished from C. bilseli from Lake Beyşehir basin as well as from C. fahireae from the Aegean Sea basin by having two laminae circularis in the male (vs. one).

Distribution. Cobitis phrygica is widespread in Central Anatolia, where it occurs in the basins of the Lakes Acı, Burdur, Salda and Sögüt and in the Aksu, an endorheic stream north of Bucak. Cobitis phrygica is also found in the Eşen River and the upper Dalaman River drainages, which flow to the southernmost Aegean Sea basin.

Remarks. Molecular data shown in Fig. 1 and by Geiger et al. (2014) place Cobitis phrygica in the C. simplicispina species group ( C. battalgilae , C. bilseli , C. dorademiri , C. joergbohleni , C. pirii , C. simplicispina , C. sipahilerae , C. turcica ). Based on DNA barcoding it is well separated from all other included Cobitis and by a minimum K2P distance of 3.5% to C. dorademiri , also supported as PTP and mPTP entity.

The colour pattern in C. phrygica is very variable within and between populations, making this species very difficult to characterize. Some individuals have the flank pattern well organised in the Gambetta zones (e.g., C. simplicispina and C. battalgilae ) while in others, the flank is covered by small spots similar to C. turcica . We found also all kinds of intermediate colour patterns between individuals with well-organised Gambetta zones and others with Gambetta zones completely dissociated. While the simple suborbital spine distinguishes C. phrygica from the species discussed above, this character state is also found in C. joergbohleni and C. pirii described below, while in C. turcica some individuals have a simple and others have a bifurcate suborbital spine, the outer spine being very small in some C. turcica .

In extreme cases and based on current knowledge, only molecular characters will allow the distinguishing of Cobitis phrygica . See below for details to distinguish C. phrygica from C. simplicispina , C. sipahilerae , C. turcica , and C. pirii and in 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 19. Cobitis phrygica, from the top: FSJF 2468, male, about 70 mm SL; female, 82 mm SL; Turkey: spring east of Gemiş; FSJF 2572, female, 79 mm SL; Turkey: spring Kırkpınar; FSJF 2584, female, 96 mm SL; Turkey: stream north of Gölhisar; FSJF 3199, male, 53 mm SL; Turkey: stream Salda.