Taxonomic revision of the species belong to genus Capoeta distributed in turkey

Within the scope of this thesis, taxonomic revision of the species belong to genus Capoeta, which distrubuting in Anatolia, was done. In recent years, some new species have been described by taxonomic and molecular studies, while some others have been accepted as invalid and synonmised with the other species. In addition, oppositional ideas about the taxonomic positions of some species have emerged and therefore have caused some hesitations. In order to enlighten this situation and reveal actual taxonomic position of the Capoeta species in Turkey, fish samples of each species of the genus were obtained from Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Fisheries Collection and collected from fieldworks were conducted from whole Turkey. The similarities and differences between the populations were determined by using 38 morphometric and 8 meristic characters. In this context; Capoeta baliki and Capoeta turani considered to be the synonyms of Capoeta tinca and Capoeta erhani, respectively. Capoeta banarescui ve Capoeta ekmekciae described from the Çoruh River and Capoeta mauricii described from Lake Beyşehir are considered to be valid species. Besides, the whole Orontes, Seyhan, Ceyhan, Euphrates, Tigris and Lake Van populations (except spotted scrapers) seems to be belong to same species according to morphological characters. Therefore, it was considered that C. angorae, C. kosswigi and C. umbla are synonyms of C. damascina. In this study, Capoeta kaput, which was recently described from Aras River (Armenia), is recorded from Turkey. It is also considered that Kızılırmak and Stream Peçenek (Lake Tuz Basin) populations may belong an potantial new species. In conclusion, it was determined that 18 different species belonging to the genus Capoeta distributed in Turkey.