Pelasgus epiroticus belongs to the genus Pelasgus, this name is derived from the Pelasgians, the ancient people who lived around the Aegean Sea before the arrival of the Indo-European speaking ancestors of the Greeks in the second millennium B.C.E., and alludes to the fishes in this genus all being found in the Balkans. The specific name, epiroticus, means "belonging to Epirus", the historical region of northwestern Greece and southern Albania. This fish was described from Albania but it is now known only from Lake Pamvotis in Greek Epirus.[7]
Distribution and habitat
Pelasgus epiroticus is known only from Lake Pamvotis in Epirus, northwestern Greece where it was found in stagnant or slow moving water with abundant aquatic vegetation.[1]
Conservation
Pelasgus epiroticus is classified as Critically endangeredPossibly extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. None have been recorded from Lake Pamvotis since 1993. It is thought that the decline in the population was caused by the deterioration of water quality in the lake due to agriculture and urbanisation, the lake has become highly eutrophic, even hypertrophic in the summer, and is subject to blooms of toxic blue green algae. Invavsive non-native fish species have also been introduced to the lake.[1]
↑ Leonardos, I. D.; Kagalou, I; Tsoumani, M; Economidis, P. S. (2008). "Fish fauna in a Protected Greek lake: biodiversity, introduced fish species over an 80-year period and their impacts on the ecosystem". Ecology of Freshwater Fish. 17 (1): 165–173. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0633.2007.00268.x.
↑ Perdikaris, C; Nathanailides, C; Gouva, E; Karipoglou, C; Paschos, I (2005). "Collapse of Epirus minnow (Pseudophoxinus epiroticus) population in Lake Pamvotis, Greece (Teleostei: Cyprinidae)". Ichthyological Exploration of Freshwaters. 16 (4): 371–374.
↑ Kottelat, Maurice; Freyhof, Jörg (2007). Handbook of European freshwater fishes. Cornol, Switzerland: Publications Kottelat. p.215.
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