| Fishes of the tribe Barbini are discussed systematically with reference to their close relatives in the Cyprininae. The Barbini, as understood here, contain several subtribes, three of which, the Barbi, Puntii, and Tores, are compared. Scale morphology provides unequivocal characters for recognition of Asiatic puntiins; scale differences between the Barbi and Tores are present but subtle. Hemibarbus (Gobioninae) is used as an outgroup for cladistic comparison of scales. Scales of species in conservative genera tend to resemble Hemibarbus, whereas more variable genera have scales strongly differing from Hemibarbus.; Lists of nominal species are furnished for southeastern, eastern, central and west Asiatic genera. The poorly-known southeastern Asiatic genera Poropuntius and Barbodes are rediagnosed. A new genus from southeast Asia is defined for a small group of barbins having two rows of pharyngeal teeth and sharing other characters. The definition of the genus Schizocypris is expanded and included in the Barbi, because of synapomorphies with Capoeta and Cyprinion. The genus Barbus is composed of two subgenera, the Euro-Caspian Barbus and southwestern Asiatic Luciobarbus. Early findings indicate a distant shared ancestry which may result in elevation of Luciobarbus to generic rank. The Euro-Caspian Barbus may share closer relationship with Acrossocheilus than to any of the other eastern Asiatic barbels. Folifer is elevated to generic rank, and included in the subtribe Barbi rather than in the Tores. Members of Sinocyclocheilus are postulated to be pre-schizothoracin barbels which may branch near the dichotomy leading to the subtribes Barbi and Schizothoracis.; Principal component analysis performed on 45 counts and measurements demonstrates unequivocally that taxa examined generally resemble other taxa from the same geographical region. This may indicate separate and somewhat insular origin of several radiations on the continent. Wagner analysis of 45 counts and measurements plus 12 qualitative generic characters causes nearly all genera to become convex (all members on adjacent branches) for the network. Consequent removal of the most inconsistent characters yields convex genera for all southeast Asian species. Suites of possibly dependent parallel characters, and methods of detecting and dealing with parallelism are discussed. |
