Descriptions of two new species of the botiid genus Leptobotia Bleeker, 1870 (Teleostei: Cypriniformes) from South China

Abstract

AbstractTwo new species of Leptobotia are here described as L. rotundilobus from the Xin'an‐Jiang of the upper Qiantang‐Jiang basin in both Anhui and Zhejiang Provinces and the Cao'e‐Jiang in Zhejiang Province, and L. paucipinna from the Qing‐Jiang of the middle Chang‐Jiang basin in Hubei Province, South China. Both have a plain brown body as found in L. bellacauda Bohlen & Šlechtová, 2016, L. microphthalma Fu & Ye, 1983, L. posterodorsalis Chen & Lan, 1992 and L. tientainensis (Wu, 1930). The two new species are distinct from these species in vertebral counts, further from L. posterodorsalis in vent placement and further from the other three species in pectoral‐fin length. Both differ in caudal‐fin coloration and shape, and dorsal‐fin location and coloration, and also in internal morphology. Their validity is confirmed by their own monophyly recovered in a phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial cyt b and COI genes.