Tariqilabeo Mirza & Saboohi, 1990

Kottelat, Maurice, 2016, On Gonorynchus, Gonorhynchus, Gonorinchus, Gonorhinchus and Gonorrhynchus, and some other names of labeonine fishes (Teleostei: Gonorynchidae and Cyprinidae), Zootaxa 4178 (3), pp. 443-450 : 445

Tariqilabeo Mirza & Saboohi, 1990

When they decided to use ‘ Gonorhynchus McClelland’ for the South Asian species of ‘ Crossocheilus ’, Yang et al. (2012) did not verify the availability of the name and did not realise the nomenclatural risks inherent in the nearhomonymy of Gonorynchus Scopoli, 1777 and ‘ Gonorhynchus McClelland, 1838 ’, and the likelihood that an old classical name prone to misspelling was likely to have a number of homonyms, quasi homonyms, incorrect subsequent spellings and emendations.

The name Tariqilabeo Mirza & Saboohi, 1990 was proposed as a subgenus of Labeo Cuvier, 1816 . Its type species is Labeo macmahoni Zugmayer, 1912 , by original designation. Labeo macmahoni is a South Asian ‘ Crossocheilus ’. It is not clear whether it is a valid species or a synonym of ‘ Crossocheilus ’ diplochilus ( Heckel, 1838) but a photograph of the only known surviving syntype shows a ‘ Crossocheilus ’ ( Mirza & Arshad 2008: 465, fig. 1). This makes Tariqilabeo the valid name for the genus including the South Asian ‘ Crossocheilus ’ and the ‘ Gonorhynchus ’ of Yang et al. (2012).

Yang et al. (2012) recovered T. latius and T. diplochilus as sister species, themselves sister group to T. burmanicus ( Hora, 1936) and Akrokolioplax bicornis ( Wu, 1977) . They concluded that Akrokolioplax Zhang & Kottelat, 2006 is a junior synonym of ‘ Gonorhynchus McClelland’. With only three species of Tariqilabeo examined, with problems with the identity of T. burmanicus (several species confused under this name; pers. obs.), with additional species having rostral flaps apparently homologous with those of Akrokolioplax , and given the fugacity of molecular phylogenies when additional species or other genes are analysed, I consider it premature to follow this synonymy and I conservatively retain Akrokolioplax until the synonymy is corroborated.