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| Gobiobotia lii Chen, Wang, Cao & Zhang, 2022 |
Abstract
Gobiobotia lii is described from the Qi-Shui, a stream tributary on the northern bank of the middle Chang-Jiang mainstem in Hubei Province and Lake Dongting in Hunan Province, central China. The new species is distinguished from all other congeneric species by possessing a combination of the following characters: a naked region of the abdomen adjacent to the ventral mid-line extending to the vent and the vertebral count (4+31–32). The validity of G. lii is confirmed by its monophyletic nature recovered in a phylogenetic analysis, based on the cyt b gene and its significant sequence divergence with sampled congeneric species. Critical notes were given on the species recognition of historically documented eight-barbel gudgeons co-existing in Lake Dongting. Gobiobotia nicholsi Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966 should be a valid species distinct from G. filifer (Garman, 1912) and both G. pappenheimi Kreyenberg, 1911 and G. boulengeri (=Xenophysogobio boulengeri (Tchang, 1929)) have an erroneous record from the Lake.
Key Words: cyt b gene, new taxon, morphology, species identification, taxonomy
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Gobiobotia lii, holotype, IHB 202103051401, 48.6 mm SL, P. R. China: Hubei Province: Qichun County: Xiangqiao Town: Chang-Jiang Basin, Qi-Shui. photographed alive immediately upon capture. |
Gobiobotia lii sp. nov.
Gobiobotia pappenheimi Chen & Cao, 1977: 556 (Lake Dongting), Synonym
Diagnosis: Gobiobotia lii is distinct from all other congeneric species, except G. brevirostris Chen & Cao, 1977, G. homalopteroidea Rendahl, 1933, G. jiangxiensis Zhang & Liu, 1995 and G. pappenheimi Kreyenberg, 1911, in having a naked region of the abdomen adjacent to the ventral mid-line extending to or beyond the vent (vs. to or away from the pelvic-fin base) (Figs 2c, 3). It differs from these four species in having 4+31–32 (vs. 4+33–37) vertebrae. The new species shares with G. homalopteroidea and G. pappenheimi the presence of smaller eyes (diameter less than the interorbital width), maxillary barbels longer than the eye diameter and the third pair of longer mental barbels extending to the pectoral-fin insertion, these three characters separating them from G. brevirostris and G. jiangxiensis. The new species further differs from G. homalopteroidea in possessing a smaller (vs. larger) naked region of the abdomen adjacent to the ventral mid-line extending to the anus (vs. to the anal-fin origin) and the eye diameter 20.0–25.8% of HL (vs. 10.8–13.9%); and from G. pappenheimi in having pectoral fins extending away from (vs. beyond) the pelvic-fin insertion, the second branched pectoral-fin ray not prolonged (vs. prolonged) and a longer (vs. shorter) snout than the post-orbital length.
Etymology: The specific epithet is named after Shi-Zhen Li, a native of Qichun County where the holotype and partial paratypes were caught. Li was a well-known medical scientist in the Ming Dynasty, who compiled “Compendium of Materia Medica” (‘本草纲目’ in Chinese) - one of the most valuable pieces of literature of traditional Chinese medicine. He had a typical image as an old man with a long white dense beard, just like the eight-barbel gudgeon. The common Chinese name ‘李氏鳅鮀’ in here proposed for Gobiobotia lii.
Xiao Chen, Man Wang, Liang Cao and E. Zhang. 2022. Gobiobotia lii, A New Species of Gudgeon (Teleostei, Gobionidae) from the middle Chang-Jiang Basin, central China, with Notes on the Validity of G. nicholsi Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966. Zoosystematics and Evolution. 98(1): 93-107. DOI: 10.3897/zse.98.80547
