Alburnoides economoui, a new species of spirlin from Central Greece and redescription of Alburnoides thessalicus (Actinopterygii: Cyprinidae)
Abstract
Until recently all the Alburnoides populations of the Macedonia-Thessaly and Western Aegean ecoregions were considered as Alburnoides bipunctatus thessalicus Stephanidis, 1950. Here a new species of spirlin, Alburnoides economoui, is described from the Spercheios River (Fthiotida Prefecture).
It is distinguished from all other congeners in Greek river basins and the Danube and Elbe drainages by the combination of the following characters: a very sharp ventral keel, scaleless or with 1-2 scales; 12(1/2)-14(1/2) branched anal-fin rays; 42-47 + 1-3 pored lateral line scales; 19-25 pre-dorsal scales; snout conical, slightly pointed; snout length shorter than eye diameter; pelvic-fin origin about midway between pectoral-fin and anal-fin origins or slightly closer to anal-fin origin. The name Alburnoides thessalicus is now restricted to the populations from the Pinios, Aliakmon and Axios/Vardar rivers.
A redescription and designation of neotype for Alburnoides thessalicus is provided. The species can be distinguished from all other congeners in Greek river basins and the Danube and Elbe basins by the presence of a sharp ventral keel in only 2/3 of its length, variably scaled with modally 4-6 scales; usually 12(1/2) branched anal-fin rays; 44-50 + 1-2 pored lateral line scales; 24-31 pre-dorsal scales; snout stout, slightly to clearly rounded; snout length about equivalent to the eye diameter; pelvic-fin origin closer to anal-fin origin than to pectoralfin.
Despite similar morphological characters when compared to other European Alburnoides species, A. economoui differs remarkably genetically from all other studied Alburnoides species. The interspecific genetic divergence based on cytochrome b nucleotide sequences ranges from 7.3 to 8.8% (uncorrected p-distance).