29. Sabanejewia caspia (Eichwald, 1838)

Common name. Caspian spined loach

Taxonomy. Original description: Cobitis caspia Eichwald, 1838: 133 [Caspian Sea at Lenkoran, Azerbaidjan; No types known] .

Revisions. See Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a).

Illustrations. Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a: 284-289, figs. 9-14).

Distribution in Iran. —Distribution in River Basin: Caspian Sea.—Distribution in Ecoregions: 434-Kura-South Caspian Drainages.

Status in Iran. [Native].—Roftgar mahi-e khazar.—Listed in previous checklists from Iran by Esmaeili et al. (2017 a, 2018); Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. (2020) and Eagderi et al. (2022); recorded by Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a).— Iran material: ZM-CBSU.

Conservation. —IUCN: NE.

Remarks. For a long time, the Iranian spined loaches of the genus Sabanejewia have been classified into three species, S. aurata, S. caspia, and S. caucasica (Esmaeili et al. 2010, 2014, 2017, 2018; Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2015) but presence of S. caucasica (Sayyadzadeh et al. 2018a: 288, fig. 16) in Iran was under question. It is morphologically similar to S. caspia than to S. aurata and is distinguished from S. caspia by having marbled pigmentation along flank not forming a streak (vs. a narrow continuous dark brown streak along flank in S. caspia); dark blotches on dorsum often fused (vs. no large dorsal blotches in S. caspia); branches of suborbital spine the same size (vs. the anterior one much shorter than posterior in S. caspia) (Kottelat & Freyhof 2007). Sayyadzadeh et al. (2018a) failed to find any spined loach in the examined materials as S. caucasica, so the data (morphologically and genetically) confirmed presence of only two Sabanejewia species in the Iranian drainage of the Caspian Sea basin.