Subterranean Fishes of the World

7134

2026

Zoosystematics and Evolution

519-531

102(2)

Copyright Wang, J.-J. et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium

A new species of the genus Claea, Claea dafangensis sp. nov., is described from Yuchong Township, Dafang County, Guizhou Province, China. This species can be distinguished from its four congeners by a combination of the following characteristics: body pigmentation present; normal eyes with a diameter of 10.9–21.0% of head length (HL); processus dentiformis prominent, covering the lower jaw when the mouth is shut; 8–9 branched pectoral-fin rays; 16 branched caudal-fin rays; caudal-peduncle depth 6.1–8.7% of standard length (SL); interorbital width 23.6–39.0% HL; tip of maxillary barbel reaching the posterior margin of the eyes; outrostral barbel extending backward beyond the anterior nostrils; and anal-fin base length 4.0–5.5% SL. Mitochondrial Cyt b analysis further supports the distinctiveness of this population, revealing that it forms an independent phylogenetic lineage with a minimum genetic distance of 2.6% from C. wulongensis. The description of this new species suggests that Claea dabryi represents a species complex containing multiple distinct lineages, the diversity of which requires further evaluation

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Lei, H.-T., He, L., Huang, J.-H., Zhou, J.J. and He, D.K. (2025)
Wang, J.J., Luo, T., Xiao, M.-Y., Xin, X., Wang, Y.-L., Deng, H.-Q., Xiao, N. and Zhou, J. (2026)