Alosa kessleri (Grimm, 1887)

Jouladeh-Roudbar, Arash, Ghanavi, Hamid Reza & Doadrio, Ignacio, 2020, Fig. 4 in Fig. 4 in Fig. 3 in Fig. 21. Sesarmops mora n in Paralbunea dayriti, Zoological Studies 59 (21), pp. 1-303 : 24

Alosa kessleri (Grimm, 1887) – Native ( Fig. 34)

Clupea kessleri Grimm [O. von] 1887: 7, 16; Type locality: Volga River delta, Astrakhan. Lectotype: ZIN 15925. Paralectotypes: ZIN 15922 (1).

Caspialosa volgensis bergi Tanassiychuk [N. P.] 1940: 103; Type locality: Near villiage of Nikolskoye, 240 km above Astrakhan, Volga Delta, northern Caspian Sea, Russia. Syntypes: (several) ZIN 29212 (1).

Common name: Pr: Shagmahi-e-mohajer, Puzanok, Zalom, En: Caspian anadromous Shad, Volga herring, Black-spined herring.

Diagnosis: Body fairly elongate, more “herring-like” than “shad-like”. Total gill rakers 57 to 95 (as in A. caspia ), thick, coarse and shorter than gill filaments in some, long, thin and equal to or longer than gill filaments in others (i.e., A. volgensis 75–128 GR). Teeth found in both jaws and well-developed. Other Caspian shads have less than 50 gill rakers, except A. caspia which is deep-bodied.

Meristic characters: D: III–V 12–16 (14), A: II– IV (III) 15–21 (18), P: 8–9, GR: 57–95, LL: 53–56, TV: 47–50 but Svetovidov (1952) report 50–54.

Distribution: Caspian Sea basin ( Fig. 35). In sea and along shores of the central and northern parts, but in south and especially southeast in winter. Enters northern rivers to spawn. In Iranian waters it is found in the southern Caspian Sea basin.

Taxonomy: Whitehead et al. (1988) placed in Alosa .

Conservation: IUCN: Least Concern ( Freyhof and Kottelat 2008e).