Leuciscus

Freyhof, JÖrg, Yoğurtçuoğlu, Baran, Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash & Kaya, Cüneyt, 2025, Handbook of Freshwater Fishes of West Asia, De Gruyter : 348

Leuciscus

Daces, ides, and asps of the genus Leuciscus are medium-sized to large leuciscids, with the greatest diversity occurring from Western Europe to Siberia. Leuciscus are characterised by their silvery, elongated body, concave posterior margin of the anal, a complete lateral line, and 7–8½ branched dorsal rays. Most species inhabit large rivers and streams with clear water and moderate to swift currents. Two species, Leuciscus aspius and L. vorax , are known to occur in West Asia, where they are large predators that hunt in the open water column of lakes, marshes, and large rivers, often also in freshened parts of the sea. Both were previously classified in their own genus, Aspius . Leuciscus latus , described from the Hari in Afghanistan, has been occasionally listed for Iran. Recent records appear to be based on a misidentification of Rutilus lacustris , a non-native species in the Hari. The identity of L. latus requires further clarification, and the species has not been recorded in the 20 th or 21 st century. It cannot be excluded that L. latus is a synonym of one of the Central Asian Leuciscus species. Central Asian species, including L. baicalensis , L. bergi , L. lehmanni , L. lindbergi , L. squaliusculus , and L. dzungaricus , all share the same or highly similar mitochondrial DNA haplotypes ( COI). This species group requires taxonomic revision. Aspiolucius esocinus is an asp native to the Aral basin, which appears to be closely related to Leuciscus and may be transferred to that genus in the future.

Further reading. Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2020 (misidentification of L. latus ).