New Data on the Distribution of the Bulgarian Spined Loach Cobitis Strumicae (Teleostei: Cobitidae) in Turkiye

Abstract

This study reports the presence of Cobitis strumicae Karaman, 1955 in Terme Stream (Samsun-Black Sea-Turkiye). Molecular and morphometric approaches were used together to prove the existence of the species in Terme Stream. The family Cobitidae represents a unique element of ichthyofauna. Even while sexual dimorphism can take many different forms, taxonomy studies have only used a small number of morphological features, leaving many concerns unanswered. In addition to the assessments of phenotypic traits (Gambetta's longitudinal zones, Canestrini's scales, suborbital spine morphology, barbel and mental lobe morphology), mitochondrial cytochrome b gene (cyt b) (1140 bp) sequence variation was studied in molecular analysis. We present the phylogenetic relationships of morphologically diagnosable subgenus Bicanestrinia from Asia Minor and Balkans in here. Samples from Terme (Accession Numbers: ON116344 and ON116345) and GENBANK were combined in the phylogenetic analysis. Our findings offered a significant distribution update of C. strumicae from Terme Stream, a southern coastal Black Sea drainage, and support the vicariance theory, according to the results of this study.