A New Freshwater Fish Species of the Genus Oreonectes (Teleostei: Cypriniformes: Nemacheilidae) From Guangxi, China

We describe a new species of loach, Oreonectes daguishanensis sp. nov. from Guangxi Daguishan Crocodile Lizard National Reserve in Hezhou City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China. Morphologically, the new species can be distinguished from congeneric species by the following combination of characters: dorsal-fin origin posterior to pelvic-fin origin; pectoral fins short, not reaching pelvic-fin base; pelvic-fin tip does not exceed anus; body width 10.2%-13.6% of standard length; eye diameter 15.5%-19.3% of head length; posterior chamber of swim bladder degenerated. Phylogenetic analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I and cytochrome b gene markers supports its species-level distinctiveness, with uncorrected p-distances ranging from 7.4% to 9.7% from closest relatives.