Review of the genus Garra Hamilton, 1822 in Iran with description of a new species: a morpho-molecular approach (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)

The Iranian species of the genus Garra are reviewed, and diagnoses are presented for all recognized species. Garra gymnothorax, G. lorestanensis, G. mondica, G. nudiventris, G. persica, G. rossica, G. rufa, G. typhlops and G. variabilis are considered valid. Discognathus crenulatus Heckel, 1847 is considered as a synonym of G. rufa. One new species is described, Garra amirhosseini, from the Tigris River drainage in Iran distinguished from its congeners by having 7½ branched dorsal-fin rays, breast and belly with very small scales which are fully covered by a thick epidermal layer, and 9+8 branched caudal-fin rays. Garra amirhosseini is also distinguished from all other of congeners in the Persian Gulf basin except a species without a mental disc, G. elegans, by having two fixed, diagnostic nucleotide substitutions in the mtDNA COI barcode region. Maximum Likelihood based estimation of the phylogenetic relationships placed the sequenced fishes into 16 groups which showed between 0.62% (Garra amirhosseini vs. Garra elegans) and 17.6% (Garra variabilis vs. Garra barreimiae) K2P sequence divergence in their COI barcode region.