Mirogrex terraesanctae, Conservation

Mirogrex terraesanctae View in CoL View Figure

Common name. Tiberias bream.

Diagnosis. Distinguished from M. hulensis by: ● 73−82 total lateral-line scales / ● 16−20, usually 18−19, gill rakers on lower limb of first gill arch / ● body depth 18−24 % SL. Size up to 152 mm SL.

Distribution View Figure . Lake Tiberias in Israel and Lake Muzayrib in Syria.

Habitat View Figure . Lacustrine, pelagic; spawns on wave-washed lake shores.

Biology. Pelagic, gregarious. Spawns November–May with a peak in January–February in littoral zone ( 0–50 cm) on rocks and gravel on wave-washed shores. Feeds on zoo- plankton and anflug.

Conservation status. LC; population of Lake Tiberias is large and commercially important, population of Lake Muzayrib is small and may be threatened or extirpated.

Remarks. Occasionally hybridises with Acanthobrama lissneri ; Muzayrib Lake population appears to be at least partly introgressed by mitochondrial genes from A. lissneri .

Further reading. Steinitz 1952 (description); Goren et al. 1973 (review); Gafny et al. 1992 (spawning); Durand et al. 2002 (phylogeny); Perea et al. 2010 (phylogeny); Geiger et al. 2014 (phylogeny, introgression by Acanthobrama ); Behrens- Chapuis et al. 2015 (cytochrome oxidase 1 intraspecific variability).