Sabanejewia caspia (Eichwald, 1838)

Sayyadzadeh, Golnaz & Esmaeili, Hamid Reza, 2024, Freshwater lamprey and fishes of Iran: Reappraisal and updated checklist with a note on Eagderi et al. (2022), Zootaxa 5402 (1), pp. 1-99 : 16-17

29. Sabanejewia caspia (Eichwald, 1838)

Common name. Caspian spined loach

Taxonomy. Original description: Cobitis caspia Eichwald, 1838: 133 [Caspian Sea at Lenkoran, Azerbaidjan; No types known] .

Revisions. See Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a).

Illustrations. Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a: 284-289, figs. 9-14).

Distribution in Iran. —Distribution in River Basin: Caspian Sea.—Distribution in Ecoregions: 434-Kura-South Caspian Drainages.

Status in Iran. [Native].—Roftgar mahi-e khazar.—Listed in previous checklists from Iran by Esmaeili et al. (2017 a, 2018); Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2020) and Eagderi et al. (2022); recorded by Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a).— Iran material: ZM-CBSU.

Conservation. —IUCN: NE.

Remarks. For a long time, the Iranian spined loaches of the genus Sabanejewia have been classified into three species, S. aurata , S. caspia , and S. caucasica (Esmaeili et al. 2010, 2014, 2017, 2018; Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2015) but presence of S. caucasica ( Sayyadzadeh et al. 2018a: 288, fig. 16) in Iran was under question. It is morphologically similar to S. caspia than to S. aurata and is distinguished from S. caspia by having marbled pigmentation along flank not forming a streak (vs. a narrow continuous dark brown streak along flank in S. caspia ); dark blotches on dorsum often fused (vs. no large dorsal blotches in S. caspia ); branches of suborbital spine the same size (vs. the anterior one much shorter than posterior in S. caspia ) ( Kottelat & Freyhof 2007). Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a) failed to find any spined loach in the examined materials as S. caucasica , so the data (morphologically and genetically) confirmed presence of only two Sabanejewia species in the Iranian drainage of the Caspian Sea basin.