Oxynoemacheilus Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966

Kamangar, Barzan Bahrami, Prokofiev, Artem M., Ghaderi, Edris & Nalbant, Theodore T., 2014, Stone loaches of Choman River system, Kurdistan, Iran (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae), Zootaxa 3755 (1), pp. 33-61 : 37

Oxynoemacheilus Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966

Type species: Cobitis persa (nec Heckel, 1848) Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966 = Oxynoemacheilus cf. brandti (Kessler, 1877) .

Emended diagnosis: This genus can be distinguished from all other nemacheilid genera based on the following combination of characters: mouth unmodified, with lips furrowed to nearly smooth, processus dentiformis present or absent; preethmoidei-I absent; four cylindrical pectoral bony radials; mature males with epidermal tubercles widely distributed on head, body and paired fins, not forming separate pads; anus close to analfin origin; dorsal adipose crest present or absent, when present, of uniform height or gradually increasing in height towards base of caudal-fin; no jet-black mark at base of dorsal fin.

Remarks: Prokofiev (2009) transferred species having the free pelvic axillary lobe from Oxynoemacheilus to Paracobitis Bleeker, 1863 , which was not supported by Freyhof et al. (2011). Furthermore, in addition to the species listed by Prokofiev (2009) Freyhof et al. (2011: 303) reported the presence of the “small pelvic axillary lobe” in O. persa , the type species of the genus. It should be noted, however, that Bănărescu & Nalbant (1966: 153–154) misidentified O. persa with a species distributed in the Urmia Lake basin when they erected the taxon Oxynoemacheilus . Later, the true O. persa was described by Nalbant & Bianco (1998) under the name of O. farsicus , as clearly shown by Freyhof et al. (2011: 309). Thus, the taxon Oxynoemacheilus was based not on O. persa , but on a species similar or identical with O. brandti (Kessler, 1877) according to the morphological description and Figure of the Urmian loaches in Bănărescu & Nalbant (1966). Our personal data suppose a quite complex taxonomical situation in O brandti / bergianus –complex which may represent more than two species; however, the results of the molecular analysis (I-Shiung Chen, B.A. Levin, personal communication 2012) does not correspond well with the morphological data; thus, it is not possible to separate reasonably the species within this group at current state of knowledge. As a result, the taxonomic position of the fishes from the Urmia Lake cannot be satisfactory determined at present.

In the present paper we accept the limits of the genera Oxynoemacheilus and Paracobitis proposed by Freyhof et al. (2011) due to the following reasons: (1) though we had not found other species having the free pelvic axillary lobe, we found a skin fold lacking the free posterior tip in the several specimens of the species described below. This fold can be homologous to the axillary lobe (reduced or incompletely developed), although further study is required; thus, this feature may have the mosaic distribution within the species of Oxynoemacheilus . (2) We studied specimens of O. tigris (Heckel, 1843) from Lake Kinneret, which possess the type of male breeding tubercles of Oxynoemacheilus . We also found both muscular cheeks and breeding tubercles in males of Turcinoemacheilus kosswigi (see below). Thus, the differences in the sexual dimorphic features among the genera Oxynoemacheilus and Paracobitis as proposed by Prokofiev (2009) may not be stable, and the interrelationships between the species of Oxynoemacheilus with and without pelvic axillary lobe and the species of Paracobitis requires further investigation.

In addition, we found high variability in the distribution of the breeding tubercles on the head and body among the species of Oxynoemacheilus . In the some species (i.e., the members of the O. angorae - brandti –complexes from the Caspian Sea drainage) the breeding tubercles are rather homogeneously distributed on the head and body of the nuptial males, while in the others (including the species described in the present paper) the breeding tubercles are aggregated mostly on the snout, paired fins, ventral surface of body and on the area near the base of the dorsal fin. The phylogenetic value of these differences requires further research. The interrelationships of the species of Oxynoemacheilus and similar genera will be discussed in a separate paper after revision of the additional materials from the other basins.