Subterranean Fishes of the World

Country

Types

Holotype: GNUG20100618010, 66.0 mm TL, 54.1 mm SL

Paratypes: GNUG20090723001–GNUG20090723003, 54.58–62.29 mm TL, 48.12–50.86 mm SL

GNUG20100618001–GNUG20100618009, 40.62–63.64 mm TL, 34.34–51.40 mm SL

Distribution

Known only from the type locality: Unnamed stream in Liujiang River basin, Sandu County, Shuilong Township, China (25°50′44.4″ N, 107°52′54.3″ E).

Habitat

The species inhabits an underground river flowing in a cave. The cave, which opens near a hilltop, is approximately 150–200 m in length. The underground river is near the bottom of the cave and is approximately 15m long and 0.15–0.85 m wide. Its flow is gentle and clear, and the average depth of the water is 0.40 m. This new species was observed at depths of 0.01–0.40 m. In the underground river, the only other aquatic organisms found were small shrimps (Deng et al. 2016).

Systematics

Placed in the genus Troglonectes (from the genus Oreonectes) by Huang et al. (2019).

There are 19 described species in the genus Troglonectes (Eschmeyer 2022), all expect one are hypogean fishes with reduced eyes, reduced pigment and reduced scales. The only epigean member of the genus is Troglonectes hechiensis Zhao, Liu, Du and Luo 2021. The epigean species is a member of a monophyletic group which also contains T. furcocaudalis, T. daqikongensis, T. jiarongensis and T. shuilongensis (Zhao, Liu, Du and Luo 2021).

Museum Holdings

As above only.