Sabanejewia balcanica (Kottelat, 1997)

Iftime, Alexandru & Oţel, Vasile, 2025, An annotated systematical checklist of the Romanian ichthyofauna, Zootaxa 5654 (1), pp. 1-64 : 9

Sabanejewia balcanica (Karaman, 1922)

A native, widespread freshwater species, found in rivers from the montane areas downstream, in both intra- and extra-Carpathian drainages ( Bănărescu 1964; Bănărescu et al. 1972 [as S. aurata balcanica ]; Bănărescu 2007; Kottelat & Freyhof 2007; Cocan & MireȘan 2018; Polyák et al. 2022; Nagy et al. 2023 [as S. sp., including balcanica and bulgarica ]). Sabanejewia bulgarica (Drensky, 1928) , found in the Danube and the lower course of some of its tributaries (but going quite high up the Tisza) ( Bănărescu 1964; Bănărescu et al. 1972 [both as S. aurata bulgarica ]; Bănărescu 2007 [as S. balcanica bulgarica ], Oțel 2007; Kottelat & Freyhof 2007; Cocan & MireȘan 2018; Polyák et al. 2022; Nagy et al. 2023 [as S. sp., including balcanica and bulgarica ]; Năstase & Năvodaru 2023) and Sabanejewia vallachica (Nalbant, 1957) , found in the Ialomița, Buzău and some lower Siret tributaries ( Bănărescu 1964; Bănărescu et al. 1972 [both as S. aurata vallachica ]; Bănărescu 2007; Kottelat & Freyhof 2007; Cocan & MireȘan 2018), should be better treated as belonging to S. balcanica ; their taxonomical history is complex. Thus, S. balcanica , S. bulgarica and S. vallachica were long seen as subspecies of S. aurata (De Filippi, 1873) which intergrade in some places and allegedly do not intergrade in others ( Bănărescu 1964; Bănărescu et al. 1972), then as forms of S. balcanica ( Kottelat 1997) , and later as distinct species: Nalbant 2003 —even treating the upper MureȘ local form as a species, S. radnensis (Bănărescu et al. 1960) , which was not followed by other authors except Bănărescu (2004, 2007); Bănărescu 2004 —attributing Danube-drainage S. balcanica / S. bulgarica to S. montana (Vladykov, 1925) , an opinion he later abandoned ( Bănărescu 2007); Kottelat & Freyhof 2007. All forms in Romania are variable, encompassing much the same range of variability, and clearly intergrade wherever they meet ( Iftime 2002); mtDNA studies have grouped all Romanian forms into a “Danubian-Balkanian complex” (Perdices et al. 2003), more or less structured into lineages defined by drainage catchment/area (Perdices et al. 2003; Bartoňová et al. 2008), such lineages cutting across morphological forms, which are to a large extent ecological ( Križek et al. 2020; Fedorčák et al. 2023). However, there is significant discordance between the mtDNA-informed and the nuclear-informed clustering of the “Danubian-Balkanian complex” ( Vasil’eva et al. 2022) and its alleged species are not well defined by diagnostic characters ( Vasil’eva & Vasil’ev 2023); this, as well the morphological overlap and intergradation, suggest the “Danubian-Balkanian complex” should better be treated as a single species, for which S. balcanica would have priority.