The southwestern part of China which is famous for Karst landform has a rich and exotic cave fish resource. Some of the fish are transparent, and their eyes degenerated and even disappeared. Their tentacles stretch out into the distance, looking like elves in water, which makes them very mysteriously cool but lovely.

Researchers collected four loach species from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guizhou Province in 2017 and 2018 which represent four new species of Triplophysa, i.e., T. anshuiensis, T. luochengensis, T. tianlinensis and T. guizhouensis.

In addition to the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and Inner Mongolia, Triplophysa species occur in many other places in China such as the Pearl River system.

In the narrow distribution zone of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou Provinces, China, not only the common surface species, but also the typical cave species (no eyes, albinism, etc.) can be seen, and there are many intermediate types between them. This diversity makes them the ideal materials for the study of animal geography evolution, ecological adaptation.

Until now, the genus of Triplophysa currently contains 141 species worldwide, of which 117 species are from China. These specimens provide materials to know the fish evolution from ground to cave in karst region.

This work was supported by grants from Special Funds for Young Scholars of Taxonomy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ZSBR-011).

Triplophysa anshuiensis (Image by DU Lina)

Linving Condition of Triplophysa anshuiensis (Image by LAN Jiahu) 

Triplophysa tianlinensis (Image by LAN Jiahu)

Triplophysa luochengensis (Image by LAN Jiahu) 

Triplophysa guizhouensis (Image by LAN Jiahu)