Cobitis peschevi Sivkov & Dobrovolov, 1984: 1673 Cobitis rhodopensis Vassilev, 1998: 280 Review of the genus Cobitis in the Middle East, with the description of eight new species (Teleostei: Cobitidae) Freyhof, Jörg Bayçelebi, Esra Geiger, Matthias Zootaxa 2018 2018-12-21 4535 1 1 75 WK43 Karaman, 1955 Karaman 1955 [151,563,151,178] Actinopterygii Cobitidae Cobitis GBIF Animalia Cypriniformes 34 35 Chordata species strumicae  ( Fig. 26–27)   Cobitis taenia strumicae  Karaman, 1955: 190, fig. 4 ( typelocality: FYROM: Monospitovo swamp and Strumica River).    Cobitis pescheviSivkov & Dobrovolov, 1984: 1673, fig. 1 ( typelocality: Bulgaria: Eleshnitsa River, a tributary of Kamchiya River).   Cobitis rhodopensisVassilev, 1998: 280, fig. 1 ( typelocality: Bulgaria: Biala River, a tributary of Maritsa River, downstream of Meden buk village)   Material examined.  FSJF 1703, 12,  50–69mmSL; Greece: stream Kompsatosat Polyanthos, 41.139 25.212.—  FSJF 1755, 28,  44–81mmSL; Greece: stream Maritzaat Kornofolia, 41.134 26.292.—  FSJF 2343, 7,  49–95mmSL; Turkey: Çanakkaleprov.: stream Kocaat Bakacak, 40.204 27.086.  Material used in molecular genetic analysis.ZFMK ICH-TIS 55817 & 55818; Greece: Strymon River near Amfipolis, 40.829 23.839. (GenBank accession numbers: KJ553048, KJ553143).—FSJF DNA-301; Turkey: Çanakkaleprov.: stream Koca at Bakacak, 40.204 27.086. (BOLD accession number: EUFWF4175-18).   Diagnosis.  Cobitis strumicaeis distinguished from all other species of  Cobitisin the Middle East by having two brown blotches at the upper and lower margin of the caudal-fin base (vs. no spot or one spot). It is further distinguished from  C. fahireaefrom the AegeanSea basin,  C. puncticulatafrom the Marmara Sea basin as well as from  C. taeniafrom the southern Black and Marmara Sea basins by having two laminae circularis in the male (vs. one).  Cobitis strumicaeis distinguished from  C. dorademiriand  C. phrygica, both having two laminae circularis in the male, by lacking the pigmentation below Z4 (vs. present in  C. dorademiri, blotches in Z4 often dissociated into a field of spots and blotches, especially in the female  C. phrygica) and having a bifurcate suborbital spine (vs. simple in  C. phrygica).   Distribution.  Cobitis strumicaeis widespread in the European Aegeanand southern Black Sea basins, from the Struma River drainage to the area of Varna ( Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey), the Lakes Volvi and Koronia ( Greece) and the Danube drainage in Bulgaria.  Cobitisfrom the stream Koca at the Biga Peninsula (northernmost Aegean basin in Turkey) are identified as this species.   Remarks.Molecular data ( Fig. 1) suggest that  C. strumicaeis not closely related to other  Cobitisspecies having two laminae circularis except of  C. afifeaedescribed below and  C. punctilineataknown from the northern AegeanSea basin in Greece. Based on DNA barcoding it is well separated from all other included  Cobitisand by a minimum K2P distance of 5.3% to  C. punctilineata. It is also supported by the PTP and mPTP delimitation approaches.   FIGURE 26.  Cobitis strumicae, from the top: FSJF 2343, females, 94 mm SL, 85 mm SL, 69 mm SL; Turkey: stream Koca.   FIGURE 27.  Cobitis strumicae, FSJF 2343, female, 85 mm SL; Turkey: stream Koca. See below for details to distinguish  C. strumicaefrom  C. afifeaeand from other  Cobitisspecies found in the southern Marmara Sea basin.  Cobitis strumicaeis reported here for the first time from Asia. Its occurrence on the Biga Peninsula is no surprise as  C. strumicaeis well known from the adjacent northern Aegeanand Marmara Sea basins. 2120487210 [406,615,258,280] FYROM Strumica River 34 35 1 Karaman 2120485766 [394,1404,447,472] FSJF Greece Polyanthos Kompsatos 34 35 FSJF 1703, 12, 50-69 1 2120485580 [151,1117,484,509] FSJF Greece Kornofolia Maritza 34 35 FSJF 1755, 28, 44-81 1 2120487802 FSJF Turkey Bakacak Koca 34 35 FSJF 2343, 7, 49-95 1 Canakkale