Paraschistura turcomana (Nikolskii, 1947)

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 : 29

71. Paraschistura turcomana (Nikolskii, 1947)

Common name. Murgab loach

Taxonomy. Original description: Nemacheilus kessleri turcomanus Nikolskii, 1947: 32 , fig. 3 [Kushka River near town of Kushka, Murgab River basin, Turkmenistan; syntypes: ZMMU P-5734 (3), P-5735 (1)] .

Revisions. Kottelat (2012: 102).

Illustrations. Nikolskii (1947: fig. 3) as Nemacheilus kessleri turcomanus .

Distribution in Iran. —Distribution in River Basin: Hari River.—Distribution in Ecoregions: 434-Kura-South Caspian Drainages, 450-Turan Plain, 630-Middle Amu Darya.

Status in Iran. [Native].—Loch-e Torkamani.—Listed in previous checklists from Iran by Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2020) and Eagderi et al. (2022).—Iran material: ZM-CBSU.

Conservation. —IUCN: NE.

Remarks. Nemacheilus kessleri turcomanus Nikolskii 1947 is a synonym according to Freyhof et al. (2015), but Mousavi-Sabet et al. (2015) consider it as valid species of P. turcomana . Coad (1995) placed turcomana in Noemacheilus kessleri as subspecies, Kottelat (2012) regard as full species and transferred to Paraschistura . Morphological characters of this species, not diagnostic and most of them overlap with P. turcomanica so Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2020) suggested the validity of this species should be examined by molecular markers.