Review of the genus Cobitis in the Middle East, with the description of eight new species (Teleostei: Cobitidae) Author Freyhof, Jörg Author Bayçelebi, Esra Author Geiger, Matthias text Zootaxa 2018 2018-12-21 4535 1 1 75 journal article 27727 10.11646/zootaxa.4535.1.1 a047bcd9-ab65-4e3f-b07a-c830c7af1072 1175-5326 2615773 ABE9DB1F-7378-4571-90C4-A3FDB66527F3 Cobitis elazigensis Coad & Sarieyyüpoglu, 1988 ( Fig. 9 ) Cobitis elazigensis Coad & Sarieyyüpoglu, 1988 : 426 , fig. 1 ( type locality: Turkey : Elazig Province : a creek at Cip, 15 km west of Elaziğ , in drainage of Murat Nehri, a tributary of Euphrates River; 38.700 39.083). Material examined. FSJF 2495 , 15 , 88–132 mm SL; Turkey : Elazığ prov.: canal below Cipköy reservoir, at picnic area, 38.678 39.064 .— FSJF 2559 , 4 , 77–88 mm SL; Turkey : Adıyaman prov.: stream Eğri about 6 km south of Adıyaman , tributary to Atatürk damlake, 37.741 38.335 . Material used in molecular genetic analysis. FSJF DNA-903 ; Turkey : Elazığ prov.: canal below Cipköy reservoir, at picnic area, 38.678 39.064. (GenBank accession numbers: KP 050510 , KP 050513 , KP 050514 , KP 050517 , KP 050527 ) . Diagnosis. Cobitis elazigensis is distinguished from C. avicennae from the Iranian Tigris River drainage by having two laminae circularis in the male (vs. one). Distribution. Cobitis elazigensis is widespread in the upper Euphrates River drainage south to the Atatürk reservoir. It might be more widespread in the Euphrates and records of Cobitis from the Syrian Euphrates (Coad 2010) might belong to this species. Remarks. Erk'akan et al. (1999) identified this species as C. simplicispina but molecular data ( Fig. 1 ) place C. elazigensis in the C. linea species group ( C. linea , C. aliyeae , C. anabelae , C. erkakanae , and C. levantina ). See below for details to distinguish C. elazigensis from other species in the C. linea species group and from other Cobitis species found in the Persian Gulf basin. Based on DNA barcoding C. elazigensis is well separated from all other included Cobitis and by a minimum K2P distance of 4.7% to C. linea , also supported as PTP entity.