Rutilus stoumboudae explained

Rutilus stoumboudae is a species of freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found only in Greece, in Lake Volvi and is a lacustrine species adapted to still water. It is named for Maria Stoumboudi, in honour of her research on the ecology and conservation of the freshwater fishes of Greece.^[1]

Description

Rutilus stoumboudae grows to a maximum size of, and can distinguished from its congener R. rutilus by having 16-17 total gill rakers (vs. 13–14) and an average of 9 branched rays (vs. 10 in R. rutilus) in both the dorsal and anal fins, from a total of 11-12 and 12 soft rays, respectively. It can be diagnosed from R. pigus by the absence of nuptial tubercles, and having 39-43 scales on the lateral line (vs. 46–51) and 8-9 branched rays in the anal fin (vs. 9–11)

Taxonomy and systematics

Rutilus stoumboudae was described as a distinct species in 2014.^[2]

In a 2017 phylogeographic study, it was argued that the Ponto-Caspian taxa including R. caspicus, R. heckelii and R. stoumboudae could represent a single widespread species whose range would extend to Siberia, to be named R. lacustris.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Scharpf . Christopher . Lazara . Kenneth J. . 25 January 2024 . Family LEUCISCIDAE: Subfamily LEUCISCINAE Bonaparte 1835 (European Minnows) . 28 January 2023 . The ETYFish Project.
2. Bianco, P.G. . Ketmaier, V. . amp . 2014 . A revision of the Rutilus complex from Mediterranean Europe with description of a new genus, Sarmarutilus, and a new species, Rutilus stoumboudae (Teleostei: Cyprinidae). Zootaxa. 3841. 3. 379–402. 10.15468/VL9OR.
3. Levin, B.A., Simonov, E.P., Ermakov, O.A., Levina, M.A., Interesova, E.A., Kovalchuk, O.M., Malinina, Y.A., Mamilov, N.S., Mustafayev, N.J., Pilin, D.V., Pozdeev, I.V., Prostakov, N.I., Roubenyan, H.R., Titov, S.V. & Vekhov, D.A. (2017): Phylogeny and phylogeography of the roaches, genus Rutilus (Cyprinidae), at the Eastern part of its range as inferred from mtDNA analysis. Hydrobiologia, 788 (1): 33–46.