Homatula gelao (Cypriniformes, Nemacheilidae), a new nemacheiline species of loach from the upper Yangtze River basin in Guizhou Province, southwestern China

By

Xiao, Gui-Bang
Guo, Qi-Wei
Cao, Liang
Lin, Jia
Deng, Wei-Xi
Xiao, Qi-Qi
Zhou, Lin
Zhang, Hao-Ran
Fang, Ding-Zhi

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-2-13

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

101

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

257--271

Subjects

Homatula gelao , morphological comparison , new species , taxonomy , Yangtze River basin

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.141973

 

Abstract

Homatula gelao, a new species, is here described from the Wu-Jiang of the Yangtze River basin in Guizhou province, southwestern China. This new species belongs to the elongate-bodied group of Homatula defined by having a complete lateral line, sparsely scales hidden in skin on the predorsal body, and a slender body with a uniform depth. It, along with H. variegata, is distinguished from all other species of this group in having a broadly rounded caudal fin and a small number of scales sparsely scattered over the predorsal body. Both differ in body coloration, striped pattern on the predorsal body, and caudal-peduncle length. The validity of the new species is corroborated by distinct genetic distance divergence with closely related congeneric species and its monophyly recovered in a mtDNA COI gene-based phylogenetic analysis. It is separated from other Homatula species by a minimum of 8.2% Kimura 2-parameter distance in the COI gene.