Coregonus lavaretus

Coregonus lavaretus is a species of freshwater whitefish, in the family Salmonidae. It is the type species of its genus Coregonus.

There are widely different concepts about the delimitation of the species Coregonus lavaretus and about the number of species in the genus Coregonus in general.

Lavaret

In a narrow sense, Coregonus lavaretus, or the lavaret, is considered to be endemic

to Lake Bourget and Lake d'Aiguebelette in the Rhône river basin in France, whereas it formerly also occurred in Lake Geneva. According to this view there is a great number of distinct whitefish species in lakes, rivers and brackish waters of Central and Northern Europe.

European whitefish (common whitefish)

In the broad sense, Coregonus lavaretus, in English referred to as the common whitefish or European whitefish, is widespread from central and northwest Europe to Siberia. Often called the C. lavaretus complex and considered as a superspecies, it encompasses many of the whitefish populations suggested by others to be locally restricted species (such as the British powan and the gwyniad or the Alpine gravenche, as well as distinct intralacustrine morphs and populations characterized by different feeding habits, gill raker numbers, growth patterns and migration behaviour. Genetic studies suggest that the whitefish diversity within this complex is mostly of post-glacial origin. The resource polymorphism represented by the feeding morphs has evolved repeatedly and independently within individual lakes, and similar morphs in different lakes are not closely related to each other.

Description

There is much variation among the European whitefish forms, but in general they have a tapered body, a slightly protruding upper jaw and a fleshy dorsal fin that is typical of the salmon family.