Aphaniops Explained

Aphaniops is a genus of killifishes in the family Aphaniidae, which are native to Western Asia (including Asia Minor and Iran), Northeast Africa and east to southwest India. Several species in the genus have very limited distribution and may be threatened.

Etymology

The generic name is derived from Aphanius, and Greek, Modern (1453-);: ὄψις -opsis meaning "appearance".^[1] It is a sister genus to Aphanius and Paraphanius.

Species

There are nine valid species:

• Aphaniops dispar Rüppell, 1829 (Arabian toothcarp)
• Aphaniops furcatus Teimori, Esmaeili, Erpenbeck & Reichenbacher, 2014^[2]
• Aphaniops ginaonis Holly, 1929
• Aphaniops hormuzensis (Teimori, Esmaeili, Hamidan & Reichenbacher, 2018)
• Aphaniops kruppi (Freyhof, Weissenbacher & Geiger, 2017)
• Aphaniops richardsoni (Boulenger, 1907) (Dead Sea toothcarp)
• Aphaniops sirhani Villwock, Scholl & Krupp, 1983 (Azraq toothcarp)
• Aphaniops stiassnyae Getahun & Lazara, 2001 (Lake Afdera killifish)
• Aphaniops stoliczkanus (Day, 1872)

Further reading

• DNA barcoding and species delimitation of the Old World tooth-carps, family Aphaniidae Hoedeman, 1949 (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes). 2020. Esmaeili. Hamid Reza. Teimori. Azad. Zarei. Fatah. Sayyadzadeh. Golnaz. PLOS ONE. 15. 4. e0231717. 32298351. 2020PLoSO..1531717E. 10.1371/journal.pone.0231717. free. 7162479.
• A proposal for a new generic structure of the killifish family Aphaniidae, with the description of Aphaniops teimorii (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes). 2020. Freyhof. Jörg. Yoğurtçuoğlu. Baran. Zootaxa. 4810. 3. 421–451. 33055730. 10.11646/zootaxa.4810.3.2.
• Neotype designation of Aphanius iconii, first reviser action to stabilise the usage of A. fontinalis and A. meridionalis and comments on the family group names of fishes placed in Cyprinodontidae (Teleostei: Cyprinodontiformes) . July 2017 . Zootaxa. 4294 . 5 . 573–585 . 10.11646/zootaxa.4294.5.6 . Jörg Freyhof . Müfit Ozulug . Gülşah Saç.

Notes and References

1. Web site: Order CYPRINODONTIFORMES: Families POECILIIDAE, ANABLEPIDAE, VALENCIIDAE, APHANIIDAE and PROCATOPODIDAE . 19 June 2024 . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara . 8 December 2023 . v. 16.0.
2. Teimori, A., Esmaeili, H.R., Erpenbeck, D. & Reichenbacher, B. (2014): A new and unique species of the genus Aphanius Nardo, 1827 (Teleostei: Cyprinodontidae) from Southern Iran: A case of regressive evolution. Zoologischer Anzeiger – A Journal of Comparative Zoology, 253 (4): 327-337.