{{Short description|Species of fish}} {{Speciesbox | image = LeucaspiusDelineatusMale.JPG | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn">{{cite iucn |author=Freyhof, J. |year=2024 |title=''Leucaspius delineatus'' |article-number=e.T11873A135088943 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-2.RLTS.T11873A135088943.en |access-date=30 January 2025}}</ref> | taxon = Leucaspius delineatus | parent_authority = Heckel & Kner, 1858 | display_parents = 3 | authority = Heckel, 1843 | synonyms = {{Specieslist | Squalius delineatus | Heckel, 1843 | Aspius ovsianka | Czernay, 1851 | Leucaspius abruptus | Heckel & Kner, 1857 | Leuciscus pigmeus | Platera, 1861 | Owsianka czernayi | Dybowski, 1862 | Leucaspius relictus | Warpachowski, 1889 | Leucaspius delineatus var. dimorphus | Ruzsky, 1914 | Phoxinellus thracicus | Battalgil, 1942 }} | synonyms_ref = <ref name = "Cof genus">{{Cof genus|genus=Leucaspius|access-date=28 March 2025}}</ref> }}
'''''Leucaspius''''' is a monospecific genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Leuciscinae, of the family Leuciscidae. The only species in this genus is '''''Leucaspius delineatus''''', known as the '''sunbleak''', '''belica''' or '''moderlieschen'''. The species is found in Europe and Western Asia.
==Description== The belica is a slender fish with a tapered body which is usually from {{cvt|4|to|6|cm|1}} long and seldom grows larger than {{cvt|10|cm|1}}. It has an upward-turned mouth and a short lateral line which extends about seven to ten scales from the gill cover. The anal fin is short and consists of eleven to fourteen rays. This is a silvery fish with a particularly intense band of colour running along the flank.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/kalat/belica |title=Belica: ''Leucaspius delineatus'' |publisher=NatureGate |access-date=14 December 2013}}</ref>
==Distribution== [[Image:LeucaspiusDelineatus1.jpg|thumb|left|"Motherless" juvenile fish in a drying-out ephemeral pond]] The belica is found all over temperate continental Europe and barely extends to Central Asia in the Caucasus region. The southern limits of its range are essentially marked by the Pyrenees and the Alpide belt.
The common name ''Moderlieschen'' is of German origin. Although it looks like a proper word that can be approximately transliterated as "mouldy Lizzy", it is actually a bowdlerized version of an older name which survives in parts of Germany as ''Mutterloseken''. Literally meaning "the little motherless one", this ultimately refers to the fact that the sticky eggs of the moderlieschen can withstand exposure to air for a remarkably long time. Deposited on water plants, they sometimes stick to the feet of ducks and similar birds and are carried by these to ephemeral ponds. Large numbers of young moderlieschens are thus sometimes encountered when such ponds dry up, and with no adult fish being present this gave rise to the belief that they were "motherless".
It has been introduced to Great Britain,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Recent releases and dispersal of non-native fishes in England and Wales, with emphasis on sunbleak ''Leucaspius delineatus'' (Heckel, 1843)|date=June 2010|journal=Aquatic Invasions|volume=5|issue=2|pages=155–161 |doi=10.3391/ai.2010.5.2.04 |author=Grzegorz Zięba|author2=Gordon H. Copp|author3=Gareth D Davies|author4=Paul Stebbing|author5=Keith J. Wesley|author6= Rob Britton|s2cid=55009378 |doi-access=free}}</ref> and appears to be established in the Avalon Marshes in Somerset and has been implicated in transmitting a new species of parasitic fluke to both European otter and American mink in the area but where it may now be an important prey species for piscivorous birds.<ref name = Williams>{{cite web | url = http://www.somersetottergroup.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Otters-on-the-Somerset-Levels3.pdf | title = Otters on the Somerset Levels | access-date = 19 August 2017 | publisher = Somerset Otter Group | year = 2006 | author = James Williams}}</ref><ref name = Grump_Ecologist>{{cite web | url = https://grumpyecologist.blogspot.co.uk/ | title = Preparing for another Spring | access-date = 19 August 2017 | publisher = The Grumpy Ecologist | year = 2017}}</ref>
==See also== * Abiogenesis
==References== {{Commons}} {{Reflist}} * {{FishBase |genus= Leucaspius |species= delineatus| month = August| year = 2011}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q750967}}
Category:Monotypic Cyprinidae genera Category:Freshwater fish of Europe Category:Fish of Asia Category:Leuciscinae Category:Taxa named by Johann Jakob Heckel Category:Fish described in 1843 Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot