Homatula guanheensis C. J. Zhou, W. W. Ma, Xi Wang, Y.T. Tang, X.L. Meng and G.X. Nie, 2021

Zhou, Chuanjiang, Ma, Wenwen, Wang, Xi, Tang, Yongtao, Meng, Xiaoling & Nie, Guoxing, 2021, Homatula guanheensis sp. nov. (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae), a new species of loach from Henan Province, China, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 65130-65130 : 65130

Homatula guanheensis C. J. Zhou, W. W. Ma, Xi Wang, Y.T. Tang, X.L. Meng and G.X. Nie, 2021 sp. n.

Materials

Type status: Holotype. Occurrence: recordNumber: HNU 010048; recordedBy: Henan Provincial Fish Resources Investigation Team ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; behavior: cave environment scoured by flowing water; Taxon : scientificName: Homatula guanheensis; kingdom: Animalia ; phylum: Chordata ; class: Actinopterygii ; order: Cypriniformes ; family: Nemacheilidae ; subgenus: Homatula ; Location : waterBody: the Yangtze River ; country: China; stateProvince: Henan Province; county: Xixia County; locality: the Guanhe River , a tributary of the Hanjiang River drainage ; verbatimElevation: 521 m a.s.l.; verbatimCoordinates: 33°52′79.3″N 111°70'94''E; georeferenceSources: Google Earth ; Identification : identifiedBy: Chuan-Jiang Zhou ; dateIdentified: 03/21/2017; Event : eventDate: 21/03/2017; Record Level: collectionCode: fish; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence : recordNumber: HNU 010049-HNU 010056; recordedBy: Henan Provincial Fish Resources Investigation Team ; individualCount: 8; lifeStage: adult; behavior: cave environment scoured by flowing water; Taxon : scientificName: Homatula guanheensis; Location : waterBody: the Yangtze River ; country: China; stateProvince: Henan Province; county: Xixia County; locality: the Guanhe River , a tributary of the Hanjiang River drainage ; verbatimElevation: 522 m; verbatimCoordinates: 33°52′79.3″N 111°70'95''E; georeferenceSources: Google Earth ; Identification : identifiedBy: Chuan-Jiang Zhou ; dateIdentified: 03/22/2017; Event: eventDate: 21/03/2017; Record Level: collectionCode: fish; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Paratype. Occurrence : recordNumber: HNU 010060; recordedBy: Henan Provincial Fish Resources Investigation Team ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; behavior: cave environment scoured by flowing water; Taxon : scientificName: Homatula guanheensis; Location : waterBody: the Yangtze River ; country: China; stateProvince: Henan Province; county: Xixia County; locality: the Guanhe River ，a tributary of the Hanjiang River drainage ; verbatimElevation: 523 m; verbatimCoordinates: 33°52′79.3″N 111°70'96''E; georeferenceSources: Google Earth ; Identification : identifiedBy: Chuan-Jiang Zhou; dateIdentified: 23/03/2017; Record Level: collectionCode: fish; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen

Description

Body elongate, anterior portion nearly cylindrical and posterior portion compressed; body depth 11.63% (10.41-13.47%) in SL (Table 2). Body scales, back and sides of post-dorsal body closely covered by small scales, predorsal body scales sparse; head, thorax and abdomen scaleless. Lateral line straight, complete and mid-lateral. Vertebrae count 4+41-43. Head short and depressed, naked, wider 56.07% (49.39%-61.12%) in HL than high 45.77% (42.42%-49.95%) in HL. Snout blunt, length 40.75% (34.48%-44.35%) in HL (Table 2). Anterior nostril forms a valve, nostril closer to anterior margin of eye than to snout tip. Eyes oval, closer to snout tip, indiscernible from ventral view. Interorbital width 28.47% (23.89%-31.09%) in HL (Table 2). Mouth inferior, lips thick and furrowed, jaws covered by lips, upper jaw with developed processus dentiformis corresponding with marked median notch on lower jaw. Three pairs of barbels: two rostral barbels, inner pair not reaching mouth corner and outer pair reaching vertical line of anterior nostril; one maxillary barbel extending to the middle and posterior margin of eye (Fig. 1 ). Dorsal fin ⅲ, 7-81/2 rays, origin nearer to snout tip than to caudal-fin base. Pectoral fin ⅰ, 9-10 rays, not extending beyond halfway from its origin to the pelvic-fin origin. Pelvic fin ⅰ, 6-7 rays, its origins closer to vertical line of first branched rays of dorsal fin; tip of the pelvic fin not extending beyond half the distance from its origin to anal fin origin. Anal fin ⅲ, 51/2 rays; origin of anal fin closer to pelvic fin origin than to caudal fin base, its tip not reaching half distance from anal-fin origin to caudal-fin base. Posterior margin of caudal fin micro-rounded; adipose crests along its dorsal and ventral mid-lines without extending through the origin of anal fin. Intestine formed as a bend, not reaching posterior surface of the U-shaped stomach. Gas bladder osseous, anterior chamber invisible, fully enclosed in a capsule; posterior chamber degenerated.

Color in preserved specimens (fixed in 10% formalin)

Head and body brown; a series of 19-22 body bars, each bar at least twice as wide as the interspace. Abdomen yellowish. Dorsal fin with two dark brown marks, one at the base, the other at postmedian of the fin; posterior border of dorsal fin white. Pectoral fins with dark brown spots. Pelvic and anal fins white, dark at the base. Adipose keels white with dark brown spots. Caudal fin dark grey; brown vertical bars on caudal fin base (Fig. 1 ).

Diagnosis

Homatula guanheensis is different from its congeners in the following characters: partly scaled (vs. in the latter, scales are totally absent or only a few scales on the caudal peduncle in H. nanpanjiangensis , H. oligolepis , H. disparizona and H. wenshanensis vs. scales all over the body, except for the head in H. acuticephala , H. anguillioides , H. pycnolepis , H. wuliangensis , H. change and H. coccinocola ); complete lateral line (vs. incomplete lateral line in H. potanini and H. wujiangensis ); the vertical brown bars on the body are wider than their interspaces, numbering 19-22 (vs. equal to interspace or slightly wider than its interspace in H. variegate , H. berezowskii and H. longidorsalis ); caudal fin micro-rounded (vs. truncated or oblique in H. variegata and H. berezowskii ); adipose crest on caudal peduncle not reaching forward of the position of the anal-fin origin (vs. beyond in H. variegate vs. identical in H. longidorsalis ); predorsal body partially scaled (vs. absent scales in H. berezowskii and H. longidorsalis ); anterior nostril forming a valve (vs. forming a spool in H. longidorsalis ). The vertical brown bars on the body of the new species are similar to H. laxiclathra . The new species can be further distinguished from H. laxiclathra in that the intestine forms a bend, not reaching the posterior surface of U-shaped stomach (vs. a loop anteriorly reaching the posterior surface of the U-shaped stomach); anterior with only a few and scattered scales (vs. scaleless).

Etymology

The specific epithet Guanheensis is derived from Guanhe River (鹳河 in Chinese, type locality) with the Latin suffix "-ensis".

Distribution

Homatula guanheensis sp. nov. is known from the Guanhe River of the Hanjiang River drainage (a tributary of the Yangtze River) in Henan Province, Central China (Fig. 3 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Homatula guanheensis (holotype, HNU 010048, 99.6 mm SL). A. Lateral view; B. Dorsal view; C. Ventral view; D. Mouth characters; E. Intestine form; F. X-ray (lateral view).

Figure 3. Distribution of all species of Homatula in China.