Mastacembelus syriacus, Scopoli, 1777

Kottelat, Maurice, 2022, Mastacembelus simack, the valid name of the Mesopotamian spiny eel (Teleostei: Mastacembelidae), Zootaxa 5162 (4), pp. 446-450 : 448

Mastacembelus syriacus

Mastacembelus syriacus Gronow , in Gray, 1854: 172 is based on Gronovius (1763: n. 402, «pl. 5 fig. 1, 2»). The plate is actually pl. 8a. The text [n. 402] includes a reference to Russell (1756). I designate here the specimen model of plate 12 figure 2 in A. Russell (1756) as lectotype and this makes M. syriacus a junior objective synonym of O. simack . Gray (1854) is a catalogue of Gronow’s collection edited and published by Gray, in which Gronow had added binominal names ( Wheeler, 1958). Gronovius’ specimen is not mentioned in Wheeler’s (1958) catalogue of the Gronovius fish collection. Wheeler mentioned only fish preserved as dried skins of half fishes on sheets of paper; the specimen received from A. Russell was possibly not a ‘herbarium’ specimen.