Subterranean Fishes of the World

Lan, Gan, Wu and Yang (2013) provide a brief account of a species they call Bibarba micoculum which they say has already been described in a separate publication. Certainly the account in Lan et al. (2013) does not consitute a description (International Code of Zoological Nomenclature 1999 Article 13) so the species name cannot be available from this account. A search of the internet finds only one use of this name in a scientific publication, Chen et al. (2015), which is a study of fossil cobitids in China and not a description of the species. Specimens referred to Bibarba micoculum were used in this paper for comparisons of spines in different cobitid taxa and the specimens of micoculum were provided by Yang Jian, the fourth author of Lan et al. (2013). The Catalogue of Fishes (Eschmeyer, Fricke and van der Laan 2018) does not mention the name micoculum, even as un unavailable name. The fish was formally described by Wu, Yang and Xiu (2015) as Bibarba parvoculus. The Yang in this authorship is Jian Yang of Lan et al. (2013). The paper in which parvoculus is available was accepetd by Zootaxa on 24 November 2014 and so the statement in Lan et al. (2013) that the name micoculum was already published cannot be correct. Bibarba micoculum is a nomen nudem and a synonym of Bibarba parvoculus.

Country

Types

Holotype: GAFS 10110586 ♂ 51.7mm SL. Paratypes: GAFS 10110583 57.3mm SL, GAFS 08090070, GTEU 10110584, GTEU 10110585 (three ♀ 52.5-57.3mm SL).

Distribution

Known only from the type locality: A cave at Jicheng village, Tianhe Town, Luocheng County, Guangxi, China, 232 meters (24°47'55.65"N, 108°44'40.27"E).

Habitat

Bibarba parvoculus coexists in the same cave pool with Troglonectes microphthalmus, Sinocyclocheilus brevis and Pterocryptis anomala (Siluridae). [Lan et al. (2013) say that the latter species is Pterocryptis cochinchinesis].

Systematics

Bohlen, Li and Slechtova (2019) used molecular markers to study the relationship of the two species in the genus (B. bibarba and B. parvoculus). They showed that the two species are sister species in a strongly supported clade and that this clade is sister to all other genera in the northern group of Cobitidae. They also note that morphological (two barbels rather than three) and biogeographic data support the molecular evidence. Exactly similar conclusions were drawn by He et al. (2021).

Biological Notes

There are currently three species in the genus and it is certainly possible that the subterranean species (B. parvoculus and B. wenliuensis) are directly evolved from the surface species (B. bibarba). It would be very interesting to attempt to cross breed the cave and surface species to see if they were still reproductively compatible, as are the surface and subterranean species of Astyanax in Mexico.

Eyes greatly reduced, pigment greatly reduced (GR/GR phenotype of Farley (2021), see also Metadata section for more details of this classification).

Museum Holdings

As above plus: ZRC54454-1, ZRC 54454-2 (Bohlen, Li and Slechtova 2019), GIF 08090070, GIF 10110586, GIF 10110583 (Lan et al. 2013, Kottelat 2012), Heilongtan Reservoir of Shilin County 2010110587 (48.3mm SL) (Yang, Chen and Li 2020).