Vintage Boots: Cobitis

Monday, 13 August 2012

Cobitis

Cobitis is a Palearctic genus of ray-finned fish in the family Cobitidae. It contains the typical spiny loaches, including the well-known Spined Loach (C. taenia) of temperate western Eurasia. Containing 69 named species as of early 2012. Similar spiny loaches, occurring generally south of the range of Cobitis, are nowadays separated in Sabanejewia.^[1]

Several Balkans populations were of doubtful status. They appear only weakly distinct from the Spined Loach, but cladistic analysis of DNA sequence data (nDNA RAG-1 and S7 ribosomal protein intron 1, and mtDNA cytochrome b) confirms that they are old lineages, properly treated as full species.