In the foothill zone— Sabanejewia balcanica (Karaman 1922), in the lowland zone— Sabanejewia bulgarica (Drensky, 1928): Myth or reality?

Abstract The status of golden loaches (genus Sabanejewia ) in the region of Central Europe and Balkans is still ambiguous. The greatest controversy is caused by species Sabanejewia balcanica and S. bulgarica . Both species are characterized by a wide spectrum of morphological variability and overlapping of distinguishing features, which then lead to difficulties in their determination. Previous phylogenetic studies aimed on the resolving of their taxonomic status did not include samples from their type localities and so led to a lack of their true distribution in this region. Therefore, the ma... Mehr ...