Cobitis

Cobitis
Cobitis shikokuensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Superclass:	Osteichthyes
Class:	Actinopterygii
Subclass:	Neopterygii
Infraclass:	Teleostei
Superorder:	Ostariophysi
Order:	Cypriniformes
Superfamily:	Cobitoidea
Family:	Cobitidae
Subfamily:	Cobitinae
Genus:	Cobitis Linnaeus, 1758
Species
About 60, see text

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 almost 60 named species as of mid-2008, at least two undescribed ones are also known. Similar spiny loaches, occurring generally south of the range of Cobitis, are noadays separated in Sabanejewia.

Species

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. The parapatric C. arachtoensis and C. hellenica are hardly different genetically and might be considered a single species.

• Cobitis albicoloris Chichkoff, 1932
• Cobitis arachthosensis (may belong in C. hellenica)
• Cobitis bilineata
• Cobitis bilseli
• Cobitis biwae Jordan & Snyder, 1901
• Cobitis calderoni
• Cobitis choii Kim & Son, 1984 – Choi's Spiny Loach
• Cobitis conspersa Cantoni, 1882
• Cobitis dalmatina (formerly in C. taenia)
• Cobitis dolichorhynchus Nichols, 1918
• Cobitis elazigensis Coad & Sarieyyüpoglu, 1988
• Cobitis elongata – Balkan Loach
• Cobitis elongatoides Bacescu & Maier, 1969
• Cobitis fahirae
• Cobitis granoei Rendahl, 1935
• Cobitis hangkugensis Kim, Park, Son & Nalbant, 2003
• Cobitis hellenica
• Cobitis illyrica
• Cobitis kellei Erk'akan, Atalay-Ekmekçi & Nalbant, 1998
• Cobitis kurui Erk'akan, Atalay-Ekmekçi & Nalbant, 1998 (formerly in C. vardarensis)
• Cobitis laoensis (Sauvage, 1878)
• Cobitis laterimaculata Yan & Zheng, 1984
• Cobitis lebedevi Vasil'eva & Vasil'ev, 1985
• Cobitis levantina
• Cobitis linea (Heckel, 1847)
• Cobitis lutheri Rendahl, 1935 – Luther's Spiny Loach
• Cobitis macrostigma Dabry de Thiersant, 1872
• Cobitis maroccana
• Cobitis matsubarai Okada & Ikeda, 1939
• Cobitis megaspila
• Cobitis melanoleuca Nichols, 1925

• Cobitis meridionalis
• Cobitis misgurnoides Rendahl, 1944
• Cobitis narentana (formerly in C. taenia)
• Cobitis ohridana (formerly in C. taenia)
• Cobitis pacifica Kim, Park & Nalbant, 1999
• Cobitis paludica
• Cobitis pontica Vasil'eva & Vasil'ev, 2006
• Cobitis puncticulata
• Cobitis punctilineata
• Cobitis rhodopensis Vassilev, 1998
• Cobitis rossomeridionalis Vasil'eva & Vasil'ev, 1998
• Cobitis satunini Gladkov, 1935
• Cobitis shikokuensis Suzawa, 2006
• Cobitis simplicispina Hankó, 1925
• Cobitis sinensis Sauvage & Dabry de Thiersant, 1874 – Siberian Spiny Loach
• Cobitis splendens Erk'akan, Atalay-Ekmekçi & Nalbant, 1998
• Cobitis stephanidisi
• Cobitis striata Ikeda, 1936
• Cobitis strumicae
• Cobitis taenia – Spined Loach
• Cobitis takatsuensis Mizuno, 1970
• Cobitis tanaitica Bacescu & Maier, 1969
• Cobitis tetralineata Kim, Park & Nalbant, 1999
• Cobitis trichonica
• Cobitis turcica
• Cobitis vardarensis
• Cobitis vettonica
• Cobitis zanandreai
• Cobitis sp. nov. A 'Bosnia-Croatia'
• Cobitis sp. nov. B 'Albania-Macedonia'

References

• FishBase (2008): Cobitis species. Version of 2008-MAY-03. Retrieved 2008-AUG-15.
• Perdices, Anabel; Bohlen, Jörg & Doadrio, Ignacio (2008): The molecular diversity of adriatic spined loaches (Teleostei, Cobitidae). Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 46(1): 382–390. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.05.007 (HTML abstract)