Abstract
Enteromiuspallidus was described by Smith in 1841 without a designated type specimen for the species. Herein, we designate a specimen from the Baakens River system as a neotype for E.pallidus and provide a thorough description for this species to facilitate ongoing taxonomic revisions of southern African Enteromius. Enteromiuspallidus can be distinguished from the other minnows in the “goldie barb group” by having an incomplete lateral line, lack of distinct chevron or tubular markings around lateral line pores, absence of a distinct lateral stripe, absence of wavy parallel lines along scale rows and lack of black pigmentation around the borders of the scales. We provide mtDNA COI sequences for the neotype and an additional specimen from the Baakens River as DNA barcodes of types and topotypes are a fundamental requirement for further taxonomic studies.
Highlights
The Cyprinidae is one of the most widespread and species-rich freshwater fish families, with 1685 valid species worldwide (Eschmeyer et al 2018)
We provide mtDNA COI barcode sequences for the neotype and an additional specimen following definitions of Chakrabarty (2010) as these sequences will facilitate detailed phylogenetic analyses to determine the relationships of E. pallidus and other southern African congeners as more data become available through ongoing studies
Enteromius pallidus co-occurs with the chubby head barb, E. anoplus, across its distribution range in the Cape Fold Ecoregion (CFE)
Summary
The Cyprinidae is one of the most widespread and species-rich freshwater fish families, with 1685 valid species worldwide (Eschmeyer et al 2018). Yang et al (2015) proposed that the small-sized African diploid minnows that were previously variously referred to as either Barbus or ‘Barbus’ (Berrebi et al 1996) should be preliminarily combined under the name Enteromius Cope, 1867 in the tribe Smiliogastrini. This suggestion has been provisionally accepted, pending a critical evaluation of the generic status of the African diploid minnows Enteromius is currently represented by 350 valid species, making it the most speciose and widely distributed cyprinid genus on the African continent (Hayes and Armbruster 2017), and new species have been recently described In southern Africa, this genus is represented by 38 species (Skelton 2001)
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