Alburnus sellal

Alburnus sellal

is a widespread species occurring in the Qweik River drainage in Turkey and the Persian Gulf basin in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran (Berg 1949, Özuluğ & Freyhof 2007, Freyhof et al. 2018). Alburnus zagrosensis was described from the Karun River drainage, which is a tributary of the lower Arvand River, the joint lower section of the Euphrates and Tigris. Alburnus sellal is widespread in the Karun River and its range is directly confluent with that of A. zagrosensis. The existence of minor molecular and morphological differences between populations of widespread freshwater fish species, including branched dorsal, anal and pelvic fin ray counts, colour pattern and adult size, is a well-studied phenomenon (Marcil et al. 2006). Although a single individual of A. zagrosensis differed from A. sellal in the number of scales between the lateral line and the dorsal-fin origin, we see no reason to consider A. zagrosensis as a valid species. In addition, data published in other studies confirm that A. sellal exhibits an even wider range in meristic characters than shown in the present study, all of which overlap with those of A. zagrosensis (Jalili et al. 2015, Mousavi-Sabet et al. 2015, Freyhof et al. 2018).

TABLE 3. Meristic data of Alburnus zagrosensis (* taken from Coad 2009, n=16, **IMNRF-1094, n=10) and Alburnus sellal (* taken from Freyhof et al. 2018, n=74, ** taken from Bogutskaya et al. 2000, n=38 (+=counted) ***; IMNRF- 1095, n=10; IMNRF-1560, n=19, IMNRF-1561, n=15, IMNRF-1562, n=7)

As we were unable to find any differences between A. zagrosensis and A. sellal, we see no argument to treat A. zagrosensis as a valid species. Therefore, we treat A. zagrosensis as junior synonym of A. sellal.

Material examined. All from Iran.

Materials used in the morphological analyses. Alburnus zagrosensis: IMNRF-1094, 10, 33.1–114.1 mm SL; Chahar Mahal-e-Bakhtiari prov.: Gandoman Lagoon 3 km south of Hosein-Abad, 31°49’52.09”N 51°4’39.22”E.

Alburnus sellal: IMNRF-1095, 10, 92.9–109.5 mm SL; Kermanshah prov.: Leileh River 1.5 km south of Kalash-e-Bakhan, 34°54’11’’N 46°12’29’’E. — IMNRF-1560, 19, 85.1–1470 mm SL; Kordestan prov.: Doab River, 33°47’0.9’’N 28°12’25’’E. — IMNRF-1561, 15, 80.1–115.6 mm SL; Kordestan prov.: Sirvan River 1.5 km south of Bih-Kehreh, 35°23’42’’N 46°15’22’’E. — IMNRF-1562, 9 (cleared and stained specimens), 65.5–114.5 mm SL; Kermanshah prov.: Dinevar River 10 km north of Bistoon, 34°26’42’’N 47°26’47’’E.

Materials used for molecular analyses. Alburnus zagrosensis: IMNRF-1094-D, 2, Chahar Mahall-e-Bakhtiari prov.: Gandoman Lagoon near Hosein-Abad, 31°49’52.09”N 51°4’39.22”E; GenBank accession numbers: MN 101762, MN 101763.