''Leucos'' is a genus of fishes in the
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
Leuciscidae
Leuciscidae is a family of freshwater ray-finned fishes, formerly classified as a subfamily of the Cyprinidae, which contains the true minnows.
Members of the Old World (OW) clade of minnows within this subfamily are known as European minnow ...
, from Southern Europe. They are a taxon which is closely related to the genus ''
Rutilus
''Rutilus'', commonly known as roaches, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This genus is a widely distributed lineage of leuciscids and r ...
'', and were only recently taxonomically distinguished from that genus.
[Bianco, P.G., Ketmaier, V. (2014)]
A revision of the ''Rutilus'' complex from Mediterranean Europe with description of a new genus, ''Sarmarutilus'', and a new species, ''Rutilus stoumboudae'' (Teleostei: Cyprinidae).
''Zootaxa'', 3841 (3): 379–402.
Molecular data suggest that ''Leucos'' diverged from ''Rutilus'' more than five million years ago, probably during the
Messinian salinity crisis. The species of ''Leucos'' are typically of small size and they all live in still waters. They differ from ''Rutilus'' by the lack of spinous
tubercles on scales and head in reproductive males, and also in the
pharyngeal teeth formula.
The sister group to ''Leucos'' is the monotypic ''
Sarmarutilus''.
Species
There are currently five recognized species in the genus:
* ''
Leucos albus''
Marić, 2010 (White roach)
* ''
Leucos aula''
Bonaparte, 1841 (North Italian roach)
* ''
Leucos basak''
Heckel, 1843 (Albanian roach)
* ''
Leucos panosi''
Bogutskaya & Iliadou, 2006 (Acheloos roach)
* ''
Leucos ylikiensis''
Economidis, 1991 (Yliki roach)
References
Leuciscinae
Taxa named by Johann Jakob Heckel
{{Leuciscinae-stub