Salvelinus

Salvelinus is a genus of salmonid fish often called char or charr; some species are called "trout". Salvelinus is a member of the subfamily Salmoninae within the family Salmonidae. The genus has a northern circumpolar distribution, and most of its members are typically cold-water fish that primarily inhabit fresh waters. Many species also migrate to the sea.
Most char may be identified by light-cream, pink, or red spots over a darker body. Scales tend to be small, with 115–200 along the lateral line. The pectoral, pelvic, anal, and the lower aspect of caudal fins are trimmed in snow white or cream leading edges.
Many members of this genus are popular sport fish, and a few, such as lake trout (S. namaycush) and arctic char (S. alpinus) are objects of commercial fisheries and/or aquaculture. Occasionally such fish escape and become invasive species.
Deepwater char are small species of char living below 80 m in the deep areas of certain lakes. They are highly sensitive to changes in the quality of the water and one species, Salvelinus neocomensis, was driven to extinction in the twentieth century.
Etymology
The origin of the name "char" or "charr" is unknown, but was perhaps from Celtic, such as the Irish word meaning "fiery red" (found in some Celtic personal names), likely for the bright red belly of the Arctic char; or perhaps borrowed from Middle Low German schar meaning "flounder, dab"; or from Proto-Germanic *skardaz or *skeraną meaning "to cut or shear", possibly referring to its sherd-like shape.
Taxonomy
There are currently three subgenera in the genus Salvelinus: Baione, Cristovomer, and Salvelinus sensu stricto. Baione, the most basal clade in the genus, contains the brook trout (S. fontinalis), and the presumably extinct silver trout (S. agassizii). Cristovomer contains only the lake trout (S. namaycush). All other species are in the subgenus Salvelinus. If the long-finned char (Salvethymus svetovidovi) is considered a member of the genus Salvelinus, it would be classified in the subgenus Salvethymus, adding a fourth subgenus.
Species diversity
As with other salmonid genera, the delimitation of species in Salvelinus is controversial. FishBase in 2015 listed 54 species or subspecies in this genus, many of which have very narrow local distributions. Fourteen localised species are listed from the British Isles alone, although these traditionally, and still by the national conservation and fisheries authorities, are all considered to represent the widespread Arctic charr (S. alpinus). Twenty species are listed from the Asian part of Russia, including several localised taxa from in each of the Kamchatka, Chukotka and Taimyr peninsulas. One of these is the long-finned char, which phylogenetically is part of the Salvelinus group but has been so far classified into its own monotypic genus Salvethymus.
The Arctic char (S. alpinus) is the most broadly distributed Salvelinus species. It has a circumpolar distribution, and it is considered the most northern of all freshwater fishes. In North America, five relatively well defined species are present, which, apart from the Arctic char, comprise the brook trout (S. fontinalis), bull trout (S. confluentus), Dolly Varden trout (S. malma) and lake trout (S. namaycush).
This listing presents the taxa recognised in FishBase grouped by geography:
Circumpolar
Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758) – Arctic char
Europe
Central Europe
Salvelinus evasus Freyhof & Kottelat, 2005
Salvelinus umbla (Linnaeus, 1758) – lake char
†Salvelinus neocomensis Freyhof & Kottelat, 2005
Salvelinus profundus (Schillinger, 1901)
British Isles
Scotland and adjacent islands:
Salvelinus gracillimus Regan, 1909
Salvelinus inframundus Regan, 1909
Salvelinus killinensis (Günther, 1866)
Salvelinus mallochi Regan, 1909
Salvelinus maxillaris Regan, 1909
Salvelinus struanensis (Maitland, 1881)
Salvelinus youngeri (Friend, 1965) – golden char
England and Wales:
Salvelinus lonsdalii Regan, 1909
Salvelinus perisii (Günther, 1865)
Salvelinus willughbii (Günther, 1862)
Ireland:
Salvelinus colii (Günther, 1863) – Cole's char
Salvelinus fimbriatus Regan, 1908 – Coomsaharn char
Salvelinus grayi (Günther, 1862) – Gray's char
Salvelinus obtusus Regan, 1908 – blunt-snouted Irish char
Northern Europe
Iceland and Atlantic islands:
Salvelinus faroensis Joensen & Tåning, 1970
Salvelinus murta (Sæmundsson, 1909)
Salvelinus thingvallensis (Sæmundsson, 1909)
Salvelinus salvelinoinsularis (Lönnberg, 1900) – Bear Island char
Fennoscandia and Northwest Russia:
Salvelinus lepechini (J. F. Gmelin, 1789)
Asia
Arctic drainages
Salvelinus andriashevi L. S. Berg, 1948 – Chukot char
Salvelinus boganidae L. S. Berg, 1926 – Boganida char
Salvelinus czerskii Dryagin, 1932 – Cherskii's char
Salvelinus drjagini Logashev, 1940 – Dryagin's char
Salvelinus elgyticus Viktorovsky & Glubokovsky, 1981 – small-mouth char
Salvelinus alpinus erythrinus (Georgi, 1775) – davatchan
Salvelinus jacuticus Borisov, 1935 – Yakutian char
Salvelinus taimyricus Mikhin, 1949
Salvelinus taranetzi Kaganowsky, 1955 – Taranets char
Salvelinus tolmachoffi L. S. Berg, 1926 – Lake Yessey char
Salvethymus svetovidovi Chereshnev & Skopets, 1990 – long-finned char: phylogenetically part of the Salvelinus clade]
Pacific drainages
Salvelinus albus Glubokovsky, 1977 – white char
Salvelinus curilus (Pallas, 1814) (= S. malma krascheninnikova Taranetz, 1933 – southern Dolly Varden
Salvelinus gritzenkoi Vasil'eva & Stygar, 2000
Salvelinus krogiusae Glubokovksy, Frolov, Efremov, Ribnikova & Katugin, 1993
Salvelinus kronocius Viktorovsky, 1978
Salvelinus kuznetzovi Taranetz, 1933
Salvelinus leucomaenis (Pallas, 1814) – whitespotted char
S. l. leucomaenis (Pallas, 1814)
S. l. imbrius D. S. Jordan & E. A. McGregor, 1925
S. l. pluvius (Hilgendorf, 1876)
S. l. japonicus (=S. japonicus) Ōshima, 1961 – kirikuchi char
Salvelinus neiva Taranetz, 1933 – Neiva
Salvelinus schmidti Viktorovsky, 1978
Salvelinus vasiljevae Safronov & Zvezdov, 2005 – Sakhalinian char
North America
Atlantic drainages
†Salvelinus agassizii (Garman, 1885) – silver trout
Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758) – arctic char
Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill, 1814) – brook trout
Salvelinus namaycush (Walbaum, 1792) – lake trout
Pacific & Arctic drainages
Salvelinus confluentus (Suckley, 1859) – bull trout
Salvelinus malma (Walbaum, 1792) – Dolly Varden trout
"Salvelinus anaktuvukensis" Morrow, 1973 – angayukaksurak char (= S. malma)
Hybrids
S. alpinus × S. fontinalis – Alsatian char
S. namaycush × S. fontinalis – splake, brookinaw
S. fontinalis × Salmo trutta – tiger trout
S. leucomaensis x O. masou – river mackerel, Kawasaba
References
Sepkoski, Jack (2002): Osteichthyes. In: A compendium of fossil marine animal genera. Bulletins of American Paleontology 364: 560. HTML fulltext
External links
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Fish Database
IUCN Salvelinus umbla
Extant Miocene first appearances
Taxa named by John Richardson (naturalist)
Ray-finned fish genera