Lythrurus


Lythrurus, the finescale shiners, is a genus of freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Leuciscidae, the shiners, daces and minnows. The fishes in this genus are found in North America.

Taxonomy

Lythrurus was first proposed as a genus in 1876 by the American ichthyologist David Starr Jordan with Semotilus diplemia as its type species. S. diplemia had been formally described in 1820 by the French polymath Constantine [Samuel Rafinesque]. However, S. diplemia is now regarded as a synonym of Chrosomus erythrogaster and in 1884 Jordan proposed Notropis lythrurus as the type species, this taxon is a synonym of Notropis umbratilis. If S. diplemia is the type species then Lythrurus is a synonym of Chrosomus and if this taxon is a valid genus then a new name is needed for this taxon. This genus is classified within the subfamily Pogonichthyinae of the family Leuciscidae.

Species

Lythrurus contains the following valid species: