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| Sinocyclocheilus xiejiahuai Luo, Fan, Xiao & Zhou, in Fan, M. Wang, J.-J. Wang, Luo, J.-J. Zhou, Xiao et J. Zhou. 2024. |
Abstract
This study describes a new species, Sinocyclocheilus xiejiahuai sp. nov., discovered within a cave located in Hongguo Town, Panzhou City, Guizhou Province, southwestern China, with the type locality in the Nanpanjiang River basin. Phylogenetic trees reconstructed based on mitochondrial genes show that the new species represents an independent evolutionary lineage with large genetic differences, 1.9%–13.8% in mitochondrial Cyt b, from congeners. Morphologically, this species can be differentiated from the 79 species currently classified under the genus Sinocyclocheilus by several characteristics: absence of horn-like structures and indistinct elevation at the head-dorsal junction, absence of irregular black markings on the body lateral and scaleless, eyes large, eye diameter 13% of head length, dorsal-fin rays, iii, 6½, last unbranched ray strong, with serrations along posterior margin, pectoral-fin rays, i, 13, anal-fin rays, iii, 5, pelvic-fin rays, i, 7, lateral line pores 74, gill rakers well developed, nine on first gill arch, pectoral fins short, tip not reaching to pelvic-fin origin. The number of Sinocyclocheilus species has been increased from 79 to 80 since the description of this new species.
Key words: Cavefish, new species, morphology, phylogeny, taxonomy
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| Lateral view of adult holotype GZNU20230304001 of Sinocyclocheilus xiejiahuai sp. nov. in preservative A left side B right side. |
Sinocyclocheilus xiejiahuai Luo, Fan, Xiao & Zhou, sp. nov.
Diagnosis: Sinocyclocheilus xiejiahuai sp. nov. can be distinguished from all other congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) absence of horn-like structures and indistinct elevation at the head-dorsal junction; (2) absence of irregular black markings on the body lateral and scaleless; (3) eyes large, eye diameter 13% of head length; (4) dorsal-fin rays, iii, 6½, last unbranched ray strong, with serrations along posterior margin; (5) pectoral-fin rays, i, 13; (6) anal-fin rays, iii, 5; (7) pelvic-fin rays, i, 7; (8) lateral line pores 74; (9) gill rakers well developed, nine on first gill arch; (10) pectoral fins short, tip not reaching to pelvic-fin origin (Table 5).
Etymology: The specific name xiejiahuai is in honor of Professor Jia-Hua Xie (谢家骅), for his contribution to zoological research in China. Before retiring from Guizhou Normal University, he described S. angustiporus, the first species distributed in Guizhou within the S. tingi species group, and his work has been an important contribution to the study of zoology in Guizhou, especially the conservation of critically endangered species. We propose the common English name “Xie’s Golden-lined Fish” and the Chinese name “Xiè Shì Jīn Xiàn Bā (谢氏金线鲃).”
Cui Fan, Man Wang, Jia-Jia Wang, Tao Luo, Jia-Jun Zhou, Ning Xiao and Jiang Zhou. 2024. Sinocyclocheilus xiejiahuai (Cypriniformes, Cyprinidae), A New Cave Fish with extremely small population size from western Guizhou, China. ZooKeys. 1214: 119-141. DOI: doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1214.127629
