Rutilus

Rutilus was first proposed as a genus in 1820 by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque with Cyprinus rutilus designated as the type species but also the type species by absolute tautonymy. In a phylogeographic study, Levin et al. (2017) argue that the Ponto-Caspian taxa including R. caspicus, R. heckelii and R. stoumboudae could represent a single widespread species whose range extends to Siberia, to be named Rutilus lacustris, whereas R. kutum is included in R. frisii. The genera Leucos and Sarmarutilus have been recently separated from Rutilus and are closely related to it. ==Etymology==

Rutilus was chosen as the genus name by tautonymy with Cyprinus rutilus; rutilus means red, golden red or reddish yellow, and is an allusion to the red colour of the fins. ==Species==

Rutilus contains the following valid species: • Rutilus caspicus (Yakovlev, 1870) (Caspian roach) • Rutilus frisii (Nordmann, 1840) (Black Sea roach) • Rutilus heckelii (Nordmann, 1840) • Rutilus kutum (Kamensky, 1901) (Kutum) • Rutilus lacustris (Pallas, 1814) (Pontic roach) • Rutilus meidingeri (Heckel, 1851) (Pearlfish) • Rutilus pigus (Lacepède, 1803) (Pigo) • Rutilus rutilus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Common roach) • Rutilus sojuchbulagi Abdurakhmanov, 1950 (Akstafa spring roach) • Rutilus virgo (Heckel, 1852) (Cactus roach) ==Characteristics==

Rutilus, according to Rafinesque, was characterised by "Vent posterior nearer to the tail. Abdominal fins with nine rays. Mouth large and with lips. Scales large." The smallest species in the genus is R. sojuchbulagi with a maximum total length of , while the largest are R. frisii and R. meidingeri with a maximum total length of . ==Distribution==

Rutilus is a widely distributed genus of leuciscids and fishes from this genus are found from Western Europe to Eastern Siberia. ==References==