gorlap, Neogobius kessleri Iljin [B. S.] in Berg 1949:1091 [Freshwater fishes of the U.S.S.R. and adjacent countries No. 30; ref. 20662] Caspian Sea and tributary rivers. Syntypes: not at ZIN. •Synonym of Neogobius kessleri (Günther 1861), but a valid subspecies gorlap Iljin 1949 -- (Pinchuk 1977:590 [ref. 8999], Miller in Whitehead et al. 1986:1062 [ref. 13677], Mitrofanov & Dukravec 1989:278 [ref. 37748], Coad 1995:31 [ref. 23608], Reshetnikov et al. 1997:755 [ref. 24702]). •Treated as a nomen nudum in part and in the synonymy of Neogobius iljini Vasil'eva & Vasil'ev 1996 -- (Vasil'eva 1998:139 [ref. 23591]). •Valid as Neogobius gorlap Iljin 1949 -- (Kottelat 1997:178 [ref. 22952], Bogutskaya et al. 2001:47 [ref. 26178], Vasil'eva & Vasil'ev 2003:253 [ref. 27347], Bogutskaya & Naseka 2004:230 [ref. 28183], Kottelat & Freyhof 2007:579 [ref. 29996]). •Valid as Ponticola gorlap (Iljin 1949) -- (Neilson & Stepien 2009:97 [ref. 30497], Esmaeili et al. 2010:378 [ref. 33391], Medvedev et al. 2013:705 [ref. 35208], Stepien & Neilson 2013:2 [ref. 35325], Parin et al. 2014:498 [ref. 33547], Vasil'eva et al. 2015:196 [ref. 33862], Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2015:899 [ref. 34062], Vasil'eva et al. 2016:9 [ref. 34347], Esmaeili et al. 2017:85 [ref. 35254], Esmaeili et al. 2018:66 [ref. 36089], Kuljanishvili et al. 2020:[5] [ref. 37535], Eagderi et al. 2020:29 [ref. 37931], Jouladeh-Roudbar et al. 2020:241 [ref. 37983], Kvach et al. 2021:38 [ref. 38595], Parenti 2021:74 [ref. 38603], Zarei et al. 2021:[6] [ref. 38262], Zarei et al. 2022:423 [ref. 39354], Zarei et al. 2022:178 [ref. 39576], Çiçek et al. 2024:311 [ref. 40789]). Current status: Valid as Ponticola gorlap (Iljin 1949). Gobiidae: Gobiinae. Distribution: Eurasia: Caspian Sea basin. Introduced elsewhere in eastern Europe. Habitat: freshwater, brackish.