Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 4, Issue 1 – June 2000

Igor V. Mitrofanov: The Biodiversity of the genus Leuciscus in Central Asia (Cyprinidae), pp. 35-43

Abstract

Data published since the beginning of the 20th century on 64 populations of dace from Europe, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia were analysed. Four discriminant meristic characters used previously to identify species and subspecies were utilized in this study. Cluster and Principal Component analyses used to assess similarities and differences in the dace populations suggest that all dace populations of Kazakhstan and Central Asia appear to form a linear continuum of relationships. Most populations within the distribution of each species or subspecies of this continuum are similar, however there is at least one population that is similar to another species or subspecies. It is our opinion that all of the populations of dace from Kazakhstan (excluding those of the Ural Basin) and Central Asia belong to one polytypic species.