''Thymallus ligericus'', the Loire grayling, is a European

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

species in the salmon

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Salmonidae Salmonidae is a family of ray-finned fish that constitutes the only currently extant family in the order Salmoniformes . It includes salmon (both Atlantic and Pacific species), trout (both ocean-going and landlocked), chars, freshwater whitefis ...

. The species is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the upper

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

drainage in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, where it lives in medium to large foothill, canyon and plateau rivers of the mountainous regions. The Loire grayling was separated as a species distinct from the more widespread

European grayling ''Thymallus thymallus'', the grayling or European grayling, is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family Salmonidae. It is the only species of the genus ''Thymallus'' (the graylings) native to Europe, where it is widespread from the Unite ...

, ''Thymallus thymallus'', in 2019. It is morphologically distinguished from that species by a more elongated body, by its pointed snout (with a straight or convex snout profile vs a concave profile of ''T. thymallus''), a more inferior mouth, a high number of black dots on the sides, a shorter head and a shorter horizontal eye diameter. It can also be distinguished by molecular characters.Weiss, S. J., D. V. Gonçalves, G. Secci-Petretto, G. K. Englmaier, A. Gomes-Dos-Santos, G. P. J. Denys, H. Persat, A. Antonov, C. Hahn, E. B. Taylor and E. Froufe (2021) Global systematic diversity, range distributions, conservation and taxonomic assessments of graylings (Teleostei: Salmonidae; Thymallus spp.). ''Organisms Diversity & Evolution'': published online on 25 Nov. 2020.

References

ligericus Freshwater fish of Europe Fish described in 2019 {{salmoniformes-stub