4.15 | Syngnathidae

According to Berg (1949) there was Syngnathus nigrolineatus distributed in the Black Sea (Lake Paliastomi, the Rioni delta, Lake Nuriegel in Batumi, riverlets in Batumi region) and subspecies S. n. caspius in whole Caspian Sea and downstream of the Kura River. Naseka and Bogutskaya (2009) elevated S. n. caspius to the species level ( S. caspius) mainly based on the arguments provided in Tarasov (2001). Here we follow Naseka and Bogutskaya (2009) treating S. caspius as a valid species from the Caspian Sea basin.