Gobiobotia lii, a new species of gudgeon (Teleostei, Gobionidae) from the middle Chang-Jiang Basin, central China, with notes on the validity of G. nicholsi Bănărescu & Nalbant, 1966 Author Chen, Xiao The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China & University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China chenxiao2010ouc@163.com Author Wang, Man The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China & University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China Author Cao, Liang https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3208-1370 The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China Author Zhang, E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6971-7160 The Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China text Zoosystematics and Evolution 2022 2022-03-29 98 1 93 107 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.80547 journal article http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.80547 1860-0743-1-93 00AEDECC765242F69DC95F4D77FE18BD 0F35426AF8F25745BA87BA48305C1D5B

Table 4. Main diagnostic characters among G. lii and closely-related eight-barbel gudgeons. Number of specimens examined for vertebrae are given in parentheses.

	G. lii Λ	G. brevirostris Λ	G. homalopteroidea ○	G. jiangxiensis Λ	G. pappenheimi Λ
○ From He and Chen (1998); Λ from this study.
1. Scaleless region of the abdomen adjacent to the ventral mid-line	To anus	To anus	To anal-fin origin	To anus	To anus
2. Snout length/post-orbital head length	> 1	<1	<1	> 1	> 1
3. Eye diameter/interorbital width	<1	> 1	<1	> 1	<1
4. Pupil shape	Round	Elliptical	Round	Round	Round
5. Eye diameter % of HL	20.0-25.8	20.0-26.3	10.8-13.9	19.3-25.2	16.1-27.4
6. Maxillary-barbel length/eye diameter	> 1	<1	> 1	<1	> 1
7. Extension of third pair of mental barbel	To base of pectoral fin	To middle of opercula	To base of pectoral fin	To front margin of pre-opercula	To base of pectoral fin
8. Pectoral-fin length/distance between pectoral- and pelvic-fin insertions	<1	<1	<1	<1	> 1
9. Second branched pectoral-fin ray	Not elongated	Elongated	Not elongated	Not elongated	Elongated
10. Vertebral counts	4+31-32 (3)	4+34 (2)	4+36-37	4+33-34 (6)	4+34-35 (5)
11. Lateral-line pored scales	37-38 (14)	38-39 (2)	41-43	38-39 (6)	37-39 (14)