''Rutilus'', commonly known as roaches, 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 freshwater

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to 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 ...

, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This genus is a widely distributed lineage of leuciscids and

ranges In the Hebrew Bible and in the Old Testament, the word ranges has two very different meanings. Leviticus In Leviticus 11:35, ranges (כירים) probably means a cooking furnace for two or more pots, as the Hebrew word here is in the dual numbe ...

from

West Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

East Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states sin ...

Taxonomy

''Rutilus'' was first proposed as a genus in 1820 by the French

polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; 22 October 178318 September 1840) was a French early 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ult ...

with ''Cyprinus rutilus'' designated as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

but also the type species by absolute

tautonymy A tautonym is a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, such as ''Rattus rattus''. The first part of the name is the name of the genus and the second part is referred to as the ''specific epithet'' in ...

. ''Cyprinus rutilus'' was first formally described in the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

with "European lakes" given as the type locality. In a

phylogeographic Phylogeography is the study of the historical processes that may be responsible for the past to present geographic distributions of genealogical lineages. This is accomplished by considering the geographic distribution of individuals in light of ge ...

study, Levin et al. (2017) argue that the Ponto-Caspian taxa including ''R. caspicus'', ''R. heckelii'' and ''R. stoumboudae'' could represent a single widespread species whose range extends to

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, to be named ''

Rutilus lacustris ''Rutilus lacustris'', the Pontic loach or Aral roach, is a species of freshwater Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the family (biology), family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species oc ...

'', whereas ''R. kutum'' is included in ''R. frisii''. Levin, B.A., Simonov, E.P., Ermakov, O.A., Levina, M.A., Interesova, E.A., Kovalchuk, O.M., Malinina, Y.A., Mamilov, N.S., Mustafayev, N.J., Pilin, D.V., Pozdeev, I.V., Prostakov, N.I., Roubenyan, H.R., Titov, S.V. & Vekhov, D.A. (2017)
Phylogeny and phylogeography of the roaches, genus ''Rutilus'' (Cyprinidae), at the Eastern part of its range as inferred from mtDNA analysis.
''Hydrobiologia, 788 (1): 33–46.'' The genera ''

Leucos ''Leucos'' is a genus of fishes in the family Leuciscidae, 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 ...

'' and ''

Sarmarutilus ''Sarmarutilus'' is a monospecific genus of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. The only species in this genus is ''Sarmarutilus rubilio'', known as the r ...

'' have been recently separated from ''Rutilus'' and are closely related to it.

Etymology

''Rutilus'' was chosen as the genus name by

with ''Cyprinus rutilus'', ''rutilus'' means red, golden red and reddish yellow and is an allusion to the red colour of the fins.

Species

''Rutilus'' contains the following valid species: * ''

Rutilus atropatenus ''Rutilus atropatenus'', also known as the Azerbaijani spring roach or Shirvan roachling, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related species. This specie ...

'' Derjavin, 1937 (Azerbaijani spring roach) * ''

Rutilus caspicus The Caspian roach (''Rutilus caspicus'') is a species of brackish water ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This fish is found in the Caspian Sea The Caspian Se ...

'' (

Yakovlev The Joint-stock company, JSC A.S. Yakovlev Design Bureau () is a Russian aircraft designer and manufacturer (design office prefix Yak). Its head office is in Aeroport District, Northern Administrative Okrug, Moscow. It is a subsidiary of Yakovle ...

, 1870) (Caspian roach) * ''

Rutilus frisii ''Do not confuse it with another fish called the kutum, '' Rutilus kutum ''Rutilus frisii'', the Black Sea roach or kutum, is a species of freshwater and brackish water ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces ...

'' (

Nordmann Nordmann is the demonym of the Norwegian people in its native language (see: Norman). It is also a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Alexander von Nordmann (1803–1866), Finnish zoologist * Armand von Nordmann (1759–1809), Au ...

, 1840) (Black Sea roach) * ''

Rutilus heckelii ''Rutilus heckelii'' is a species of freshwater and brackish water ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, which includes the daces, Eurasian minnows and related fishes. This species occurs in freshened areas of Black and Azov Seas, e ...

'' (Nordmann, 1840) * ''

Rutilus kutum The Caspian kutum (''Rutilus kutum'') or Caspian white fish is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Leuciscidae, (related to the daces and Eurasian minnows). It lives in the brackish water habitats of the Caspian Sea and its fresh ...

'' ( Kamensky, 1901) (Kutum) * ''

'' (

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) (Pontic roach) * '' Rutilus meidingeri'' ( Heckel, 1851) (Pearlfish) * '' Rutilus pigus'' ( Lacepède, 1803) (Pigo) * ''

Rutilus rutilus The roach, or rutilus roach (''Rutilus rutilus''), also known as the common roach, is a fresh- and brackish-water fish of the family Cyprinidae, native to most of Europe and western Asia. Fish called roach can be any species of the genera ''Rut ...

'' (Linnaeus, 1758) (Common roach) * '' Rutilus sojuchbulagi'' Abdurakhmanov, 1950 (Akstafa spring roach) * '' Rutilus virgo'' (Heckel, 1852) (Cactus roach)

Characteristics

''Rutilus'', according to Rafinesque, was characterised by "''Vent posterior nearer to the tail. Abdominal fins with nine rays. Mouth large and with lips. Scales large.''" The smallest species in the genus is ''R. atropatenus'' with a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of , while the largest are ''R. frisii'' and ''R. meidingeri'' with a maximum

of .

Distribution

''Rutilus'' is a widely distributed genus of leuciscids and fishes from this genus are found from Western Europe to Eastern Siberia.

References

Leuciscinae Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque {{Leuciscinae-stub