Capoeta damascina (Valenciennes, 1842)

Capoeta damascina (Valenciennes, 1842) View in CoL

Distribution in the area. Not endemic. Very widespread in the Euphrates and Tigris drainage including the Qweik. Absent from Iranian rivers Karun and Karkheh.

Taxonomic notes. Capoeta kosswigi and Capoeta angorae are synonyms of this species. The relationship of C. damascina and C. umbla is still unresolved. While recent studies accept both as valid species, they seem to occur in sympatry in the Tigris drainage. Both species show neglectable differences in molecular characters ( Alwan 2010; Alwan et al. 2016). Alwan (2010) distinguished both species are by scale counts but Schöter et al. (2009) pointed on a bimodal distribution of lateral line scale numbers in some Anatolian C. damascina populations. Kaya (2019) compared C. damascina and C. umbla populations in Turkey morphologically, however, he did not find any significant differences. We do not exclude, that just one species with a bimodal distribution of scale counts is involved. For the time being, both species are accepted as valid.