Egg to adult identification of 13 freshwater fishes from Italy: a biochemical-genetic key

The family Cyprinidae comprises most of the freshwater fauna of the North M editerranean region and it is often numerically dominant. Taxonomy based on morphology is problematic, owing to the high intraspecific variation in ph enotypic traits, their overlap between species and environmental plasticity of morphometric and meristic characters. A difficult diagnosis, particular ly for young developmental stages, can increase resource mismanagement. Her e we report on the occurrence of species-specific allozymic patterns, consi stent from eggs to adults. These allowed the construction of a biochemical- genetic key for the identification of all stages of 13 freshwater fishes, m ainly cyprinids native to the North Mediterranean region (Alburnus alburnus alborella, Barbus plebejus, Chondrostoma genei, Gobio gobio, Leuciscus cep halus, L. lucumonis, L. souffia, Rutilus rubilio, R. erythrophthalmus, Scar dinius eryrhrophthalmus, Tinca tinca, Pseudorasbora parva and Padogobius ma rtensii).