''Neogobius'' is a
genus
Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
of
gobies
Gobiidae or gobies is a family of bony fish in the order Gobiiformes, one of the largest fish families comprising over 2,000 species in more than 200 genera. Most of gobiid fish are relatively small, typically less than in length, and the fam ...
, native to
Black Sea
The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...
and the
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the world's largest inland body of water, described as the List of lakes by area, world's largest lake and usually referred to as a full-fledged sea. An endorheic basin, it lies between Europe and Asia: east of the Caucasus, ...
basins. It is part of the broader
Benthophilinae
The Benthophilinae are a subfamily of gobies endemic to the Ponto-Caspian region (including the Sea of Marmara, Marmara, Black Sea, Black, Sea of Azov, Azov, Caspian Sea, Caspian, and Aral Seas). The subfamily includes about 50 species. The repre ...
subfamily which is also endemic to the same region. Nevertheless, two ''Neogobius'' species have recently turned out to be highly invasive and spread across Europe and even to the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...
of North America.
Species
There are currently four recognized species in this genus:
* ''
Neogobius caspius''
(Eichwald Eichwald may refer to:
* Eichwald (surname)
* Eichwald porcelain
* part of the city of Kassel, Germany
* part of the village of Schönborn, Germany
* a fictitious village which is the setting of The White Ribbon.
See also
* Chalampé, Alsace, ...
, 1831) (Caspian goby)
* ''
Neogobius fluviatilis''
(Pallas
Pallas may refer to:
Astronomy
* 2 Pallas asteroid
** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas
* Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon
Mythology
* Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena
* Pa ...
, 1814) (Monkey goby)
* ''
Neogobius melanostomus''
(Pallas
Pallas may refer to:
Astronomy
* 2 Pallas asteroid
** Pallas family, a group of asteroids that includes 2 Pallas
* Pallas (crater), a crater on Earth's moon
Mythology
* Pallas (Giant), a son of Uranus and Gaia, killed and flayed by Athena
* Pa ...
, 1814) (Round goby)
* ''
Neogobius pallasi''
(Berg
Berg may refer to:
People
*Berg (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
* General Berg (disambiguation)
* Berg Ng (born 1960), Hong Kong actor
* Berg (footballer, born 1963), Ninimbergue dos Santos Guerra, Brazilian footba ...
, 1916) (Caspian sand goby)
Of these, ''N. bathybius'', ''N. caspius'' and ''N. pallasi'' are endemic to the Caspian basin. ''N. fluviatilis'' is a sister species of ''N. pallasi'' in the Black Sea basin. ''N. melanostomus'', the round goby, is native to both basins, and is the most aggressively spreading fish to exotic watersheds.
References
Ray-finned fish genera
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot
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