A novel record species of the genus <italic>Lefua </italic>from China and phylogenetic relationships of the genus <italic>Lefua</italic>

Abstract

<p indent=0mm><italic>Lefua pleskei </italic>(Herzenstein, 1888), a novel record species of the genus <italic>Lefua</italic>, collected from the Tumen River, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, China, was described based on morphology and mitochondrial d-loop sequence analyses. Meanwhile, phylogenetic relationships of <italic>Lefua </italic>species were researched. <italic>Lefua pleskei</italic> is distinguished from its congeners by the following characters: slender body shape, presence of a black longitudinal stripe on both body sides in mature males; the presence of circular-dark blotches on the middle of the caudal fin base in mature females; dorsal fin located much farther posteriad (the anterior length of the dorsal fin was 64.33% of the body length); narrow interorbital (interorbital width was 32.06% of the head length); eyes located dorsolaterally on the head; thin and smooth upper lip; thin lower lip, inconspicuous mastoid in the middle of the lower lip. The phylogenetic relationship constructed based on the maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods showed that <italic>L</italic>.<italic> pleskei</italic> (Kessler, 1876) and <italic>L</italic>.<italic> nikkonis</italic> (Jordan & Fowler, 1903) formed a sister group and a relationship with<italic> L</italic>.<italic> costata</italic>, indicating that the phylogenetic relationship is partially congruent with geographical patterns.