Re-description of the loach species (Teleostei, Botiidae), with the description of from southern Zhejiang Province, China.

(Nichols, 1925), a loach species, originally described from Dongting Lake, was recently rehabilitated, based on the examination of the holotype and non-topotypical specimens. Several field surveys conducted from 2016 to 2019 in Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, P.R. China, yielded many specimens of which were initially identified as . Molecular and morphological analyses of these specimens demonstrated that two distinct species are involved. One was identified as , represented by specimens from both the Poyang and Dongting Lake (type locality) systems in Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces, and the other species is described as , represented by specimens from the Ou-Jiang and Qu-Jiang, two coastal rivers of Zhejiang Province, China. resembles and in having a row of orange dots or an orange stripe along the dorsal mid-line of the body, extending from the nape to the caudal-fin base - a unique character in . differs from and Bohlen & Šlechtová, 2017, in caudal-fin shape and pelvic-fin insertion and proportional measurements including caudal-fin length, head length, predorsal length and anal-fin length. Its species status was further corroborated by position in a molecular phylogenetic analysis, based on the mitochondrial cyt b gene and its minimum uncorrected p-distance (2.9%) from congeneric species.