Capoeta alborzensis Jouladeh-Roudbar, Eagderi, Ghanavi and Doadrio, 2016

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 : 38-39

Capoeta alborzensis Jouladeh-Roudbar, Eagderi, Ghanavi and Doadrio, 2016 – Endemic ( Fig. 61)

Capoeta alborzensis Jouladeh-Roudbar [A.], Eagderi [S.], Ghanavi [H. R.] & Doadrio [I.] 2016: 169; Type locality: Nam River, tributary of Hableh River, near Harandeh village, Tehran province, Iran, 35°42'41.1"N, 52°40'19.7"E. Holotype: IMNRF-UT–1063–115. Paratypes: IMNRF-UT–1063 (7) and IMNRF-UT–2063 (23).

Common name: Pr: Siyah mahi Alborz, En: Alborz scraper, Alborz large scale scraper.

Diagnosis: Snout rounded, 6–8 scales rows between lateral line and dorsal fin origin, 5–8 between lateral line and anal fin origin, Mouth small and transverse, prepelvic length 53–56% SL, snout length 31–39% SL and short barbel 10–12% HL ( Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2016c).

Meristic characters: D: III–IV 8–9, A: III 6, P: 18–20, V: 9–10, GR: 19–22, LL: 39–44, TV: 40–42.

Distribution: Namak and Kavir basin ( Fig. 62). Found in Qarachay, Qom rud, Jajurud, Hableh and Nam rivers.

Taxonomy: Chondrostoma aculeatum was originally described from “eaux douces de la Perse” (= Persian Freshwater) with unknown type locality. Bianco and Bǎnǎrescu (1982) regarded it, as a subspecies of Capoeta capoeta but Coad (1991) considered it as a full species. Coad and Krupp (1994) selected Lectotype (from unknown locality of Iran) and Paralectotype (from Jajurud River) for it. They considered all the populations from Namak, Esfahan, Tigris, Kavir and Kor as C. aculeata , which differs from the results of the recent molecular studies (Alwan 2010; Levin et al. 2012; Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2016c 2017 2017c; Zareian et al. 2016). In the following, several authors— Levin et al. (2012), Zareian et al. (2016), Alwan et al. (2016) and Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2016c 2017c d)— assigned Capoeta aculeata to populations of Kor basin. Ghanavi et al. (2016) did a comprehensive study on Capoeta species based on molecular marker and showed that Capoeta populations from Kavir and Namak belong to an undescribed species and assigned C. aculeata for the Kor basin. Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2016c) followed Ghanavi et al. (2016) results and described Kavir and Namak population as C. alborzensis and considered Kor River as the type locality of C. aculeata based on the mentioned studies. In another study, Zareian et al. (2017) considered the Namak basin as the type locality of C. aculeata , contrary to their and other authors’ previous works and synonymized C. alborzensis with C. aculeata . Based on the inconsistencies mentioned here, we do not approve of Zareian et al. (2017) decision on changing the type locality of C. aculeata without any justification, we follow the other mentioned studies and accordingly consider C. alborzensis as a valid species.

Conservation: IUCN: Not Evaluated, PC: Least Concern. This species occurs in various independent localities across its distribution range and no known major threat, apart from the general drought, appears to affect it; therefore, we classified it as Least Concern.