Luciobarbus

Luciobarbus
Barbus bocagei
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Subfamily: Barbinae
Genus: Luciobarbus (disputed)
Heckel, 1843
Diversity
(See text)

Luciobarbus is a somewhat disputed genus of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae. Its members are found in fresh and brackish waters of southern Europe, the wider Near East, the Aral and Caspian Seas, and rivers associated with these. Several species in the genus are threatened. Most species are fairly small to medium-sized cyprinids, but the genus also includes several members that can surpass 1 m (3.3 ft) in length and the largest, the mangar (L. esocinus) can reach 2.3 m (7.5 ft).[1]

Systematics

The type species for Luciobarbus is the mangar (L. esocinus), for which the genus was established by Heckel in 1843. The type species' scientific name essentially means "pike-like pike-barbel" (after the northern pike, Esox lucius), though a more aliteral translation would be "pike-like wolf-barbel".

Like many other cyprinids, the present genus was long included in Barbus. It appears to be a very close relative of the typical barbels – which include that genus' type species, the common barbel (B. barbus) –, and may well warrant inclusion in Barbus. Many modern authors prefer to consider it a subgenus instead. It is, moreover, not entirely clear what species to place in Luciobarbus if it is deemed valid. The IUCN argues for a rather inclusive circumscription. Nonwithstanding the taxonomy and systematics of this ill-defined assemblage, their closest living relative is probably the Dalmatian barbelgudgeon (Aulopyge huegelii).[2]

Species

There are currently 21 recognized species in this genus:[1]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2012). Species of Luciobarbus in FishBase. December 2012 version.
  2. ↑ de Graaf et al. (2007), Almodóvar et al. (2008), IUCN (2009)

References