Ponticola iranicus, Freyhof & Yoğurtçuoğlu & Jouladeh-Roudbar & Kaya, 2025

Ponticola iranicus View in CoL

Common name. Sefid goby.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from other species of Ponticola entering freshwater in West Asia by: ○ lower jaw not or very slightly prognathous / ○ 54–70 total scales in midlateral series / ○ second dorsal usually with 15–16½ branched rays / ○ anal usually with 11–12½ branched rays / ○ lateral part of upper lip distinctively swollen / ○ dorsal head, lips, cheeks and predorsal plain brown / ○ flank very slightly reticulate / ○ first dorsal with marginal pale orange-yellow band and dark oblique spot / ○ upper part of pectoral base upper part with one dark-brown stripe / ○ pelvic disc reaching 40–60 % of distance between its origin and anus / ○ two suborbital transverse rows below suborbital longitudinal row b / ○ pelvic-disc fraenum with angular lobes whose length is 1 ⁄ 6 – 1 ⁄ 2 of fraenum width at base. Size up to 86 mm SL.

Distribution. Iran: Lower and middle Sefid drainage.

Habitat. Cold, fast-flowing, gravel-bottomed rivers and larger streams. Not found in brackish water.

Biology. Spawns end February–end April. Male guard eggs in gravel or rocky burrows.

Conservation status. LC.

Remarks. This species is very similar to P. patimari , and a recent publication suggests that the two may be indistinguishable by external characters. They occur in syntopy in Lower Sefid, and may represent just populations of one old species. Further reading. Vasil’eva et al. 2015 (description); Zarei et al. 2022b, c (distribution, biogeography, genetics, morphology).