Labeo
Orangefin Labeo (Labeo calbasu) drawing
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Superclass:	Osteichthyes
Class:	Actinopterygii
Subclass:	Neopterygii
Infraclass:	Teleostei
Superorder:	Ostariophysi
Order:	Cypriniformes
Superfamily:	Cyprinioidea
Family:	Cyprinidae
Subfamily:	Labeoninae (disputed)
Tribe:	Labeonini (but see text)
Genus:	Labeo Cuvier, 1816
Species
More than 100, see text

Labeo is a genus of "carps" in the family Cyprinidae. They are found mainly in the Old World tropics.

It contains the typical labeos in the subfamily Labeoninae, which may not be a valid group however and is often included in the Cyprininae as tribe Labeonini. If the Labeoninae are accepted as distinct, Labeonini is the name of the tribe in this subfamily to which the labeos belong. If the Labeonini are considered a tribe of the Cyprininae, the labeos are placed in subtribe Labeoina.

The labeos appear fairly similar to the "freshwater sharks" of Epalzeorhynchos, which though also part of the Labeoninae (or Labeonini) is not very closely related. Labeos are larger, though, and have a more spindle-shaped body, as they are mostly free-swimming rather than benthic like Epalzeorhynchos. Their mouths look very different, too: They have a pronounced rostral cap, which covers the upper lip except when feeding. The lips are expanded into thick sausage-shaped pads which have keratinized edges. Thus, their mouth parts are moderately apomorphic; not as little-developed as in barbs or in Epalzeorhynchos, but neither as extensive as in, for example, Garra or Ptychidio. Labeos have the two barbels on the rostrum which are common among the Cyprinidae, and also the other pair of barbels at the rear edges of the lower maxilla which has been lost in some of their relatives. They have a well-developed vomero-palatine organ. In the Weberian apparatus, the posterior supraneural bone is elongated and contacts the skull at the forward end^[1]

[edit] Species

Over one hundred different Labeo species are known to date. New ones are being described every few years or so.^[2]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Labeo

• FishBase [2009]: Labeo species. Retrieved 2009-SEP-26.
• Stiassny, Melanie L.J. & Getahun, Abebe (2007): An overview of labeonin relationships and the phylogenetic placement of the Afro-Asian genus Garra Hamilton, 1922 (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), with the description of five new species of Garra from Ethiopia, and a key to all African species. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 150(1): 41-83. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00281.x PDF fulltext

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