ta) with other Phoxinus species {P. eos and P. neogaeus) and the chromosome number 

 (2N=50), Legendre (1970b) proposed changing the name of this species (S. margarita) to 

 Phoxinus margarita. However, no other ichthyologists have followed this suggestion. 

 Stasiak (1972) studied the morphology and life history of Phoxinus neogaeus. He sup- 

 ported Pfrille as a valid genus for neogaeus. However, in a later study Stasiak (1977) 

 changed Pfrille neogaea to Chrosomus neogaeus. 



Mahy (1972) briefly reported his results from an osteological comparison between North 

 American Phoxinus species and P. phoxinus. Following this, in three serial papers, Mahy 

 (1975a, b, c) studied the osteology of P. neogaeus, erythrogaster, and oreas. It is worth- 

 while to note that Mahy used the name Chrosomus neogaeus in one (Mahy 1975a), and 

 Phoxinus neogaeus in the others (Mahy 1975b, c). Mahy (1975c) recognized two groups 

 of nearctic Phoxinus species, P. neogaeus group and P. erythrogaster group. The first 

 group, including one species, P. neogaeus, was the closest to P. phoxinus. The second 

 group included the rest of the nearctic Phoxinus species known by then. Mahy lumped all 

 species of the second group into a single species, P. erythrogaster, i.e., all the nearctic 

 Phoxinus species (except P. neogaeus) were considered different subspecies of P. erythro- 

 gaster. Thus, three subspecies were proposed in P. erythrogaster, i.e., P. erythrogaster 

 erythrogaster, erythrogaster oreas, and erythrogaster eos in North America (Mahy 1975c). 

 However, Mahy's "subspecies view" has not been accepted by other ichthyologists. 

 Gasowska (1979) accepted neither Banarescu's (1964) synonym list nor Mahy's "subspe- 

 cies" view. Having studied the osteological characters, Gasowska (1979) considered Moro- 

 co and Pfrille as valid generic names. Gasowska (1979) separated the North American 

 Phoxinus species into three groups belonging to different taxonomic levels and conside- 

 red shape of the pharyngeal process of the pharyngeal bone as the main character to re- 

 cognize different genera. Gasowska proposed a new genus, Parchrosomus, for Phoxinus 

 oreas because of the broad pharyngeal process, the shape of the urohyal, and its "lateral 

 head is smaller than the maximal body depth, whereas in the two former species (P. 

 erythrogaster and eos) the lateral head length is larger than the maximal body depth" (Ga- 

 sowska 1979). Therefore, according to Gasowska (1979), P. phoxinus, neogaeus, and Ch- 

 rosomus oreas, and other North American "Chrosomus" species belong to three different 

 genera: Phoxinus, Parchrosomus, and Chrosomus. However, I have found no publication 

 citing Parchrosomus as a valid genus. One of the major problems in Gasowska (1979) is 

 that the author did not recognize the specific breast tuberculation in his "Chrosomus" spe- 

 cies though he did notice the presence of the tuberculation in P. phoxinus and neogaeus. 

 Gosline (1978) proposed four subfamilies for Cyprinidae. Among the subfamilies, Leu- 

 ciscinae are a very big one including almost all North American minnows and some Eu- 

 ropean cyprinids. According to Gosline (1978), Phoxinus is an adaptive form of 

 Leuciscinae. 



The fifth North American Phoxinus species, P. cumberlandensis, was described by Star- 

 nes & Starnes (1978) from Kentucky. Starnes & Starnes (1978) proposed two groups of 

 Phoxinus species in North America: P. oreas group (including P. oreas and cumberlan- 

 densis), and erythrogaster group (including P. eos and erythrogaster) based on the mor- 

 phology of opercles and intestines, and coloration patterns. 



