Gwyniad
| Gwyniad | |
|---|---|
| |
| Individual caught in 1904 | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Salmoniformes |
| Family: | Salmonidae |
| Genus: | Coregonus |
| Species: | C. pennantii
|
| Binomial name | |
| Coregonus pennantii Valenciennes, 1848
| |
The gwyniad (Coregonus pennantii), or Welsh whitefish, is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the family Salmonidae, which includes the salmon, trouts and related fishes. This species is endemic to a single lake in northern Wales.
Taxonomy
[edit]The gwyniad was first formally described in 1848 by the French zoologist Achille Valenciennes in volume 21 of the Histoire naturelle des poissons, cowritten with Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes gave the type locality as Wales.[2] This fish is classified in the Holarctic whitefish genus Coregonus which is classified in the subfamily Coregoninae of the family Salmonidae.[3]
The taxonomy of the genus Coregonus is disputed;[4] some authorities assign the gwyniad to the common whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus),[5][6] and a morphological review in 2012 was unable to find any solid evidence for recognizing the gwyniad as a separate species.[7] Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes, FishBase and the IUCN list it as a distinct species, C. pennantii.[2][1][4]
Etymology
[edit]The gwyniad belongs to the genus Coregonus, this name was coined by Peter Artedi in 1738 for C. lavaretus and combines core, derived from kórē which means the pupil in Greek, with gōnía, an "angle" or "corner", an allusion to the front part of the pupil protruding at an acute angle. The specific name, pennantii, honours the Welsh naturalist and author Thomas Pennant who wrote about the gwyniad in 1769, referring to its a C. lavaretus.[8]
Distribution and habitat
[edit]The gwyniad is endmeic to Llyn Tegid, or Bala Lake, in the upper drainage system of the River Dee in the county of Gywnedd in north Wales. This species is found in the benthopelagic zone in the deeper parts of the two lakes it now inhabits but it undertakes daily vertical migrations to forage nearer the surface in the warmer months of the year.[1]
Conservation
[edit]The gwyniad is threatened by deteriorating water quality in Bala Lake and by the ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua), a fish introduced to the lake in the 1980s and now eating the eggs and fry of gwyniad. As a conservation measure, eggs of gwyniad were transferred to Llyn Arenig Fawr, a nearby reservoir, between 2003 and 2007.[5][1][9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Ford, M. (2024). "Coregonus pennantii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2024: e.T135518A137244846. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T135518A137244846.en. Retrieved 11 December 2024.
- ^ a b Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Coregonus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
- ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Coregoninae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
- ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Coregonus pennantii". FishBase. December 2009 version.
- ^ a b Winfield, Ian J; Fletcher, Janice M; James, J Ben (March 2013). "Llyn Arenig Fawr Gwyniad Survey 2012" (PDF). Countryside Council for Wales. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
- ^ "Conservation". Snowdonia National Park. Archived from the original on 19 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.
- ^ Etheridge, E.C.; C. E. Adams; C. W. Bean; N. C. Durie; A. R. D. Gowans; C. Harrod; A. A. Lyle; P. S. Maitland; I. J. Winfield (2012). "Are phenotypic traits useful for differentiating among a priori Coregonus taxa?". Journal of Fish Biology. 80: 387–407. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.2011.03189.x.
- ^ Christopher Scharpf (25 March 2025). "Family SALMONIDAE Jarocki or Schinz 1822 (Salmonids)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf. Retrieved 9 April 2025.
- ^ "Gwyniad". BBC Wales Nature & Outdoors. 2014.
