Barbatula gibba Cao, Causse & Zhang, 2012

Chen, Hao, Zhang, Hui, Chen, Yongxia & Freyhof, Jörg, 2019, A review of the Barbatula loaches (Teleostei: Nemacheilidae) from north-eastern China, with the description of four new species, Zootaxa 4565 (1), pp. 1-36 : 10-12

Barbatula gibba Cao, Causse & Zhang, 2012

( Fig. 10–12 )

Holotypes. IHB 76 x2566, 69.9 mm SL; China: Inner Mongolia: Dali-Nur Lake at Hexigten Banner (5) .

Paratypes. IHB 76 x2553, 76x 2555, 76x 2558–59, 76x 2565, 76x 2584, 6, 61.8–76.9 mm SL; same data as holotype .

Diagnosis. Barbatula gibba is distinguished from the other species of Barbatula in north-eastern China by a combination of characters, none of them unique: upper lip with a deep median incision, its depth 50–60% of the width of the upper lip ( Fig. 12a ) (vs. shallow in B. toni ), nostril widely spaced ( Fig. 12b ) (vs. closely set in B. nuda ), a short snout (shorter than the postorbital head length vs. equal to in B. nuda and B. toni ), a flattened mental lobe, short expansion on the lower lip (vs. absent in B. nuda ), the pelvic-fin origin situated below the vertical of the dorsal-fin origin (vs. in front in B. toni ) and the scales restricted to the back and flank behind the dorsal-fin base.

See Table 3 for the character states shown by the different species of Barbatula found in north-eastern China.

Distribution. Only known from Dali-Nur Lake in Inner Mongolia of China. See Figure 2 for details.

Remarks. Barbatula gibba was described by Cao et al. (2012) from the Dali-Nur Lake in Hexigten Banner in Inner Mongolia. The Dali-Nur Lake is situated about 50 km east of the borders of the upper Liao River catchment and about 100 km north of the upper Luan River catchment. Prokofiev (2014, 2016a) considered B. gibba to be a synonym of B. toni , but he does not list any materials of this species as examined and seems not to have studied the species. We examined the materials listed above and conclude that it is a valid species which can be distinguished from the other species of Barbatula in north-eastern China based on morphological characters.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Map showing the collection sites. Details for each number are listed in material examined.

FIGURE 10. Barbatula gibba, from the top: IHB 76x2566, 69.9 mm SL; IHB 76x2558, 73.9 mm SL; China: Inner Mongolia: Dali-Nur Lake.

FIGURE 11. Barbatula gibba, from the top: IHB 76x2566, 69.9 mm SL; IHB 76x2558, 73.9 mm SL; China: Inner Mongolia: Dali-Nur Lake.

FIGURE 12. Barbatula gibba, from the top: IHB 76x2566, 69.9 mm SL; China: Inner Mongolia: Dali-Nur Lake. Scale bars: a–b = 1 mm, c = 0.1 mm.