Luciobarbus - Pike-like barbel
Description
Luciobarbus is a genus of ray-finned fishes in the family Cyprinidae. Its members are found in fresh and brackish waters of southern Europe, northern Africa, the wider Near East, the Aral and Caspian Seas, and rivers associated with these. Several species in the genus are threatened. Most species are fairly small to medium-sized cyprinids, but the genus also includes several members that can surpass 1 m (3.3 ft) in length and the largest, the mangar (L. esocinus) can reach 2.3 m (7.5 ft).
The type species is Luciobarbus esocinus, for which the genus was established by Heckel in 1843. The type species scientific name essentially means pike-like-barbel (after the northern pike, Esox lucius), though a more literal translation would be pike-like wolf-barbel.
Like many other cyprinids, the present genus was long included in Barbus. It appears to be a very close relative of the typical barbels – which include that genus type species, Barbus barbus, and may well warrant inclusion in Barbus. Many modern authors prefer to consider it a subgenus instead. It is, moreover, not entirely clear what species to place in Luciobarbus if it is deemed valid. The IUCN argues for a rather inclusive circumscription. Notwithstanding the taxonomy and systematics of this ill-defined assemblage, their closest living relative is probably Aulopyge huegelii.
