Redescription of Cobitis taenia dalmatina Karaman (1929) as a new species

The description of the Cobitis taenia dalmatina - Dalmatian spined loach (Karaman, 1929) from the river Cetina is very brief and therefore the species can hardly be identified. Some of the authors (Vasiljeva 1988, Vasiljeva et al., 1989) consider that Cobitis taenia is distributed only in the Volga watershed, and in some rivers of the Baltic Sea watershed. The T-test between the females and males showed differences caused by the sexual dimorphism in lengths of the pectoral, ventral and anal fin, head length, head height (above eyes) and minimal height of body. The Dalmatian spined loach has a shorter caudal peduncul, longer pectoral and ventral fins in males, bigger distance between pectoral and ventral fins and smaller interorbital space in the relation of the values obtained by other authors. The number of lateral spots (4th Gambetta zone) is 11-18 and dorsal spots 10-17. The fin formula is D II 8, A (I) II 6(7), P I 8(9), V I 7, C 16. The number of vertebrae is 39-40 and pharyngeal teeth 11 (9-12). The maximal number of eggs was 3,300 in April and maximal egg size is 1.39 mm (in June). Partial spawning was established with four categories of eggs. It was found that the Dalmatian spined loach has two types of lamina circularis and suborbital spine. The shape of scales shows similarity with the Linnean type of the C. taenia (described by Nalbant 1993). The barbels of the Dalmatian spined loach are extremely long. Three types of the colour pattern (Gambetta zones) exist. The caudal fin base spot is brown, line-shaped and placed obliquely. In some specimens this spot is hardly visible or not present at all. Based on these results the Dalinatian spined loach, until now considered as subspecies of Cobitis taenia, should be raised on the species level.