Vaillantellinae, A New Subfamily Of Cobitidae (Pisces, Cypriniformes)

INTRODUCTION It is generally accepted that the Eurasian freshwater fish family Cobitidae includes three main divisions, usually considered as subfamilies: Cobitinae, Botiinae and Noemacheilinae (Berg, 1940; Ramaswami, 1953; Nalbant, 1963). The two first named, in which the lateral ethmoids are movable, are usually considered closer to each other than either of them to the Noemacheilinae. The largest subfamily is Noemacheilinae; some 180 species are presently accepted as valid, most of them being still ascribed to a single genus, Noemacheilus. Quite a few other genera are accepted besides Noemacheilus, one of these being Vaillantella Fowler, 1905. Its original description (Fowler, 1905, in a footnote) is quite short, mentioning only the very long dorsal fin; a somewhat more complete diagnosis by Weber & De Beaufort (1916) does not add any characters useful for clarifying the phylogenetic position of the genus. Having had the opportunity to examine the type material of two of the three known species of the genus, we realized that it differs from all other Noemacheilinae in several important characters. Hence we consider it to represent a fourth subfamily of Cobitidae. The specimens on which this study is based belong to two museums: Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden (RMNH) and Zoölogisch Museum, Amsterdam (ZMA). SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT Vaillantellinae, subfamilia nova (Type genus: Vaillantella Fowler, 1905) Body elongate, compressed. Dorsal fin very long, with 59-71 branched