A new species of cyprinid has been described from Guangxi in China.
The labeonine cyprinid was discovered in the He Jiang, part of the Zhu Jiang or Pearl River basin in Guangxi, China, and has just been named Parasinilabeo longibarbus.
Zhu, Lan and Zhang, who described the new fish in a paper in the journal Acta Hydrobiologica Sinica, said that the species can be distinguished by its pair of well-developed maxillary barbels.
The fish also has scales on its breast and belly region that are embedded beneath the skin and a post-labial groove running lateromedially which divides the lower lip into two lateral lobes and a central portion.
The type specimens measure around 4-5cm/2" in length, suggesting that the species may be the smallest known.
The Parasinilabeo genus was erected by Wu in 1939 and contains around four other species, including: P. assimilis, P. longicorpus, P. maculatus and P. microps. The latter three species were described between 2000 and 2001.
All are vaguely Garra-like in appearance and behaviour and live among pebbles and boulders in moderately fast-flowing water.
For more details see the paper: Zhu, Y, C Lan and E Zhang (2006) - A New Species of the Cyprinid Genus Parasinilabeo from Guangxi, China. Acta Hydrobiologica Sinica 30: 503-507.