Ponticola goebelii ( Kessler, 1874 )

Zarei, Fatah, Esmaeili, Hamid Reza, Abbasi, Keyvan, Kovačić, Marcelo, Schliewen, Ulrich K. & Stepien, Carol A., 2022, Gobies (Teleostei: Gobiidae) of the oldest and deepest Caspian Sea sub-basin: an evidence-based annotated checklist and a key for species identification, Zootaxa 5190 (2), pp. 151-193 : 178

31. Ponticola goebelii ( Kessler, 1874) ( Fig. 28 ), Caspian Ratan Goby

Gobius goebelii Kessler, 1874: 249 , fig. 3; type locality: Baku, Azerbaijan; syntypes: (3) NMW 33910 (1), ZIN 2229-30 (2).

Etymology: Kessler (1874) mentions the name “Mr. Goebel”, without providing his first name or any further detail, except that he was a taxidermist, who delivered the syntypes to the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg from Baku.

Distribution and habitat: Coastal waters of the Middle and South Caspian Sea sub-basins ( Fig. 27C ). Absent from freshwaters.

Remarks: Populations from the Caspian Sea originally described by Kessler (1874) as two separate species, Gobius bogdanowi and Gobius goebelii , the latter having been subsequently regarded as a subspecies of Neogobius ratan (Nordmann, 1840) . Berg (1949) distinguished N. ratan goebeli , the Caspian Sea Ratan, by its higher meristic values, wider lip and the presence of scales on the upper third of the opercle, but believed that G. bogdanowi constituted a separate species. Within the Caspian Sea, specimens from Azerbaijan and Iran, Dagestan and the Turkmenistan coasts suggest some differentiation especially in the number of scales in lateral series, yet available material at present is too limited to evaluate possible subspecific/population status of the nominal Gobius bogdanowi Kessler (the first available name) or other putative taxa at that level. Neilson & Stepien (2009) synonymized the Caspian Sea Ratan with Ponticola ratan (Nordmann, 1840) , the Black Sea Ratan, whereas it was elevated to full specific status by Naseka & Bogutskaya (2009), without further justification, since they did not include Caspian specimens in their analyses nor any discussion for their taxonomic decisions. This later was adopted by other authors, e.g., Esmaeili et al. (2010). Therefore, a detailed morphological and molecular analysis of individuals from the two basins remains of interest.

Material examined: ZM-CBSU S014-1 , 1 , off Anzali , Gilan Province, Iran .

IUCN: DD ( Mamilov 2020c).

Figures

FIGURE 27. Distributions of (A) Ponticola hircaniaensis, Ponticola iranicus, Ponticola patimari, and Ponticola cyrius, (B) Ponticola gorlap, (C) Ponticola goebelii, (D) Ponticola syrman, and (E) Proterorhinus nasalis in the Caspian Sea basin.

FIGURE 28. Ponticola goebelii. ZM-CBSU S014-1, female, 55.4 mm SL, off Anzali, Gilan Province, Iran.