Cobitis puncticulata, Erk'akan, Atalay-Ekmekçi & Nalbant, 1998

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 : 28

Cobitis puncticulata Erk'akan, Atalay-Ekmekçi & Nalbant, 1998

( Fig. 20 )

Cobitis puncticulata Erk'akan, Atalay-Ekmekçi & Nalbant, 1998: 12, fig. 4 (type locality: Turkey: Karaderetream [Karade stream?] ath [at] outlet of Manyas (Kus) Lake).

Material examined. FSJF 1670 , 1 , 59 mm SL; Greece: stream at Lira , 41.072 26.267 .— FSJF 1986 , 1 , 64 mm SL; Turkey: Bursa prov.: Çapraz River, outflow of Lake Ulubat , 40.205 28.432 .

Material used in molecular genetic analysis. FSJF DNA-180; Turkey: Bursa prov.: Çapraz River, outflow of Lake Ulubat, 40.205 28.432. (GenBank accession numbers: KJ552795 , KJ553296 , BOLD EUFWF250-18)..

Diagnosis. Cobitis puncticulata is distinguished from all other Cobitis species in the Middle East by the unique combination of one lamina circularis in the male and very small, indistinct or confluent blotches in Z2 and Z4 (vs. well separated and large), flank pigmented below Z4 (vs. unpigmented) and a brownish body (vs. pale yellowish or whitish).

Distribution. Cobitis puncticulata is known from the Lakes Manyas and Ulubat basins, which both are a part of the Simav River drainage in Turkey and from the lower Maritza drainage in Greece ( Freyhof et al. 2008).

Remarks. Based on DNA barcoding it is well separated from all other included Cobitis and by a minimum K2P distance of 2.2% to C. tanaitica . Together with the two C. taenia specimens from the Simav drainage with identical and nearly identical COI haplotypes it was recovered as distinct PTP entity.

Two out of three Cobitis individuals sequenced from the stream Sakar in the Simav River drainage (FSJF DNA-2912) were found to have COI haplotypes identical and nearly identical with C. puncticulata and one individual sequenced has a COI haplotype of C. taenia . All three voucher individuals as well as the six other Cobitis in the same lot (FFR 05530) are identified as C. taenia . As both species occur in sympatry, often syntopically (own observation), we interpret the occurrence of COI haplotypes of C. puncticulata in C. taenia as a case of introgressive hybridisation.

Figures

FIGURE 20. Cobitis puncticulata, FSJF 1986, male, 64 mm SL; Turkey: Çapraz River.