Cobitis simplicispina Hankó, 1924

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 : 30-32

Cobitis simplicispina Hankó, 1924

( Fig. 23 )

Cobitis simplicispina Hankó, 1924: 153 , pl. 3 fig. 7 (type locality: Turkey: Kötschke-Kissik [Gökçekışık (39.650 30.400), a town 15 km southwest of Eskişehir (39.776 30.520); Porsuk River drainage]).

Material examined. FSJF 1935 , 40 , 44–129 mm SL; Turkey: Konya prov.: stream at Ortaköy about 13 km north of Aksehir , 38.447 31.517 .— FSJF 2439 , 10 , 60–102 mm SL; Turkey: Ankara prov.: stream Ilhani at Ayas , 40.02 32.33 .— FSJF 2500 , 26 , 48–105 mm SL; Turkey: Ankara prov.: stream Bayındır at Kızılcahamam east of Çeltikci , 40.314 32.467 .— FSJF 2578 , 3 , 60–114 mm SL; Turkey: Konya prov.: stream Deliköyboğazı about 5 km south of Ilgın at road to Beyşehir , 38.235 31.880 .— FSJF 3732 , 28 , 47–72 mm SL; Turkey: Çankırı prov.: stream Şabanözü 5 km south of Şabanözü , 40.434 33.283 .

Material used in molecular genetic analysis. FSJF DNA-2840; Turkey: Çankırı prov.: stream Şabanözü about 5 km south of Şabanözü, 40.433 33.283. (BOLD accession numbers: BOLD EUFWF2729-18 – EUFWF2731-18).—FSJF DNA-1094; Turkey: Konya prov.: stream Deliköyboğazı about 5 km south of Ilgın at road to Beyşehir, 38.235 31.880. (BOLD accession number: EUFWF4188-18).—FSJF DNA-2931; Turkey: Eskişehir prov.: stream Pürtek about 2 km west of Oğlakçı, 39.552 31.756. (GenBank accession number: MH795382 ).—FSJF DNA.2932; Turkey: Ankara prov.: stream Kızılcahamam north of Kızılcahamam, 40.482 32.653. (GenBank accession number: MH795383 ).

Diagnosis. Cobitis simplicispina is distinguished from all other Cobitis species in the Black Sea basin by having two laminae circularis in the male (vs. one in C. elongatoides , C. pontica , C. saniae , C. satunini , C. tanaitica , C. taurica and C. taenia ).

Female C. simplicispina larger than 90 mm SL are distinguished from female C. battalgilae of the same size by the blotches in Z4 organised in one series, often fused into short or longer stripes (vs. blotches in Z4 dissociated, forming a band of several rows of small, irregularly-shaped blotches and spots) and Z 4 in the male usually fused into a short or long stripe (vs. blotches widely or densely set, not forming a stripe). In addition, male C. simplicispina are distinguished from male C. battalgilae by having a smaller dorsal-fin depth (17–19% SL vs. 21– 22) and a shorter pectoral fin (15–17% SL vs. 19–20).

Cobitis simplicispina is distinguished from C. bilseli from Lake Beyşehir basin by having two laminae circularis in the male (vs. one). It is distinguished from C. dorademiri by having a narrower caudal peduncle (caudal-peduncle depth 0.6–0.9 times in caudal-peduncle length vs. 1.0–1.2) and the blotches in Z4 often fused into a short or longer stripe (vs. well separated).

Cobitis simplicispina is usually distinguished from C. phrygica by having a black spot at the upper caudal-fin base (vs. absent) and the flank pigmentation well organised in the four Gambetta zones (vs. disorganised into many blotches and/or spots not following the four lines of pigmentation in many, but not all C. phrygica ) and blotches in Z4 not dissociated in a field of spots and blotches (vs. often dissociated). Cobitis simplicispina is further distinguished from C. phrygica by having a shorter prepelvic length (54–57% SL vs. 57–62) and a bifurcate suborbital spine (vs. simple).

Distribution. Cobitis simplicispina is widespread in the Sakarya and Kızılırmak River drainages in the southern Black Sea basin as well as endorheic basins of Lakes Eber, Akşehir and Ilgın in Central Anatolia.

Remarks. The fish collection of Hankó, including the type of C. simplicispina , was destroyed in a fire and Erk'akan et al. (1999:24) designated a neotype for C. simplicispina to replace the original type. This neotype designation does not meet the qualifying conditions of ICZN (1999: Article 75.2 and 75.3) and is therefore invalid.

There is a doubtful record of C. simplicispina from Lake İznik, which has not been approved yet. We are only aware of C. taenia occurring in Lake İznik. Cobitis simplicispina is the only species of Cobitis found in the Black Sea basin having two laminae circularis. Molecular data ( Fig. 1 ) place C. simplicispina in a species group with C. battalgilae , C. bilseli , C. dorademiri , C. joergbohleni , C. phrygica , C. pirii , C. sipahilerae , and C. turcica , all known from Central Anatolia and the Mediterranean Sea basin. Cobitis simplicispina is similar to C. battalgilae but both species are not very closely related. Based on DNA barcoding it is well separated from all other included Cobitis and by a minimum K2P distance of 5.1% to C. dorademiri . It is supported as PTP as well as mPTP entity.

See below for details to distinguish C. simplicispina from C. sipahilerae , C. turcica , and C. pirii and 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 23. Cobitis simplicispina, from the top: FSJF 2500, male, 73 mm SL; female, about 100 mm SL; Turkey: stream Bayındır; FSJF 1935, male, 65 mm SL; female, 129 mm SL; Turkey: stream at Ortaköy.