identifier	taxonID	type	CVterm	format	language	title	description	additionalInformationURL	UsageTerms	rights	Owner	contributor	creator	bibliographicCitation
8FF2F897FB3E5BEB948926971D0B85EE.text	8FF2F897FB3E5BEB948926971D0B85EE.taxon	http://purl.org/dc/dcmitype/Text	http://rs.tdwg.org/ontology/voc/SPMInfoItems#GeneralDescription	text/html	en	Brachygobius jennie Tian & Wu & Lan & Lavoué & Huang 2026	<div><p>Brachygobius jennie sp. nov.</p><p>Figs 2, 3, 4; Table 2</p><p>Chinese name.</p><p>珍妮短虾虎鱼.</p><p>English name.</p><p>Jennie’s Bumblebee Goby.</p><p>Type.</p><p>Holotype. China • SYS p 003206, 7.66 mm SL, sex undetermined; <a href="https://tb.plazi.org/GgServer/search?materialsCitation.longitude=113.4663&amp;materialsCitation.latitude=22.1236" title="Search Plazi for locations around (long 113.4663/lat 22.1236)">Hengqin Island</a>, Guangdong Province, China, 113.4663°E, 22.1236°N; April 2025; Jiang-Yan Tian leg.</p><p>Paratypes. China • SYS p 003207 – p 003236, 30 ex., 4.16–8.98 mm SL, all sex undetermined; same locality as holotype; April 2025; Jiang-Yan Tian leg.</p><p>Diagnosis.</p><p>Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. can be readily distinguished from all congeners by the following characters: small size (SL &lt;9 mm) (vs maximum SL&gt; 18 mm in all other species of Brachygobius); four complete (forming ring) or nearly complete post-cephalic, relatively narrow bars (vs three large bars in B. xanthozona, B. doriae and B. sabanus or five fainted bars in B. mekongensis), two of which are located posterior to the base of the anal fin (vs only one in B. xanthozona, B. xanthomelas, B. doriae and B. sabanus). The first bar behind the head is narrow (vs wide in B. aggregatus) (Fig. 3), extends pigmentation to the first two rays of the first dorsal fin, but does not reach the midventral line. The second bar is chevron-shaped, located below the second dorsal fin, extending pigmentation onto that fin and, ventrally reaching the midventral line (vs not reaching the midventral line in B. kabiliensis and B. nunus) (Fig. 3). Predorsal scales present (vs absent in B. mekongensis) and black bars distinct (vs often fainted or indistinct in B. mekongensis).</p><p>Description.</p><p>Morphometric data for the type specimens presented in Table 2. General morphology illustrated in Figs 2, 4. Data for holotype given in parentheses. A small species of Brachygobius (max SL &lt;9 mm). Two dorsal fins, first dorsal fin rays VI (all unsegmented; i. e., spines), first dorsal fin length 9.2–13.8 % (13.2 %) of SL; second dorsal fin rays 8 (all segmented; first unbranched, second to last branched), second dorsal fin length 9.4–16.9 % (16.3 %) of SL; anal fin rays 8 (all segmented; first unbranched, second to last branched), anal fin length 7.2–15.3 % (11.9 %) of SL; caudal fin rays 20–24 (22); pectoral fin rays 12–16 (14); pelvic fins fused forming a disc, pelvic fin rays 5 + 5; distance between insertions of pectoral and pelvic fins 13.3–17.4 (16.1 %) of SL; body covered with ctenoid striated scales, longitudinal scale rows 24; predorsal scales present; vertebrae 24 (Suppl. material 1). Body short, longer than high, body depth 14.2–18.3 % (17.2 %) of SL; anterior part rounded, posterior part laterally compressed. Head large, head length 15.8–19.7 % (18.9 %) of SL; eye medium-sized, eye diameter 35.4–45.1 % (37.2 %) of HL, above midline with dorsal orbital edge above dorsal head profile; snout short, snout length 23.8–30.3 % (26.2 %) of SL; mouth large, terminal, slightly prognathous; jaws short, mouth corner below eye anterior half; jaws with 2 to 3 rows of small conical teeth; anterior nostril in tube near lip, posterior nostril not in tube, near front of orbit; gill opening narrow, to about depth of pectoral fin base.</p><p>Coloration.</p><p>(Figs 2, 3, 4) In live and freshly collected specimens, body background whitish / cream, somewhat translucent (with the peritoneal cavity and vertebral column visible), with melanophores arranged into 1) four distinct post-cephalic black bars, complete or almost complete; 2) one black saddle mark between the dorsal fins never extending below midline but sometimes connected to the third bar, and sometimes 3) one small dorsal mark on the caudal peduncle between the last two bars. Bars relatively narrow with inter-bar spaces larger than bars, two of the bars located posterior to the base of the anal fin (no overlapping). The first bar behind the head narrow, nearly complete, extends pigmentation to the first dorsal fin but does not reach midventral line. The second bar, chevron-shaped, located below the second dorsal fin, extends pigmentation onto that fin and, ventrally, reaches the midventral line and anal fin. In some specimens, which may be males, caudal peduncle background between the last two bars yellowish, and two bright yellow spots on the upper and lower parts of the caudal fin base, just behind the fourth bar. Ventral region whitish without melanophores outside of the bars (Fig. 2). Scattered melanophores present on the scaled predorsal region, operculum, cheek, snout, and lower jaw. Occipital region black with a central white spot; dorsal orbital regions blackish. Pectoral, pelvic and caudal fins uniformly translucent. Base of the first two or three rays of the first dorsal fin pigmented black, first dorsal fin otherwise translucent; bases of the second to fourth rays of the second dorsal fin pigmented black, second dorsal fin otherwise translucent; bases of the second to fourth rays of the anal fin pigmented black, anal fin otherwise translucent.</p><p>Preserved specimens retain black markings, including the four black bars, but lose yellow coloration, with these regions turning cream / grey like the rest of the body background.</p><p>Sexual dimorphism.</p><p>The sex of the available specimens could not be determined with certainty, no females carried eggs, and no obvious external sexual dimorphism was observed. The size at maturity is also unknown.</p><p>Distribution and habitat.</p><p>Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. is currently known from the Hengqin Island, Guangdong Province, southern China. This extends the distribution of the genus Brachygobius northeastward, in a subtropical region. Species habitat consists of mangrove wetlands with clean brackish water, slow current, and silty bottom (Fig. 5). A COI sequence archived in GenBank (Accession number: KT 951754) indicates that the species is also present in the Leizhou Peninsula, China (21.35°N, 110.55°E) (Zhang et al. 2016), approximately 300 km southwest of Hengqin Island. We note that this sequence was misidentified as Butis butis (Hamilton, 1822) in Zhang et al. (2016) and in GenBank; it should be corrected to Brachygobius jennie sp. nov.</p><p>Etymology.</p><p>The specific epithet is in honor of Ms. Jennie Ruby Jane. The name recognizes her exceptional character and achievements, which proved source of inspiration for the first author who discovered the new species. The name is used as a noun in apposition. The Chinese vernacular name proposed for this new species is “ 珍妮短虾虎鱼 ”.</p><p>Sequence variation and molecular phylogeny</p><p>The COI gene sequences analyzed in this study ranged from 560 bp to 677 bp. The final alignment comprised 33 sequences, including three COI sequences of Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. newly generated for this study, each comprising 651 positions. Sequences longer than 651 bp were trimmed and sequences shorter than 651 bp were completed with “ -. ” The GC content varied between 41.5 % and 47.7 % across dataset. The average nucleotide composition was A = 26.4 %, T = 30.2 %, C = 25.7 %, and G = 17.7 %, with an A + T content accounting for 56.6 %, indicating a moderate AT bias in the COI gene region.</p><p>The COI - based ML phylogenetic tree of Brachygobius species is shown in Fig. 6. In this tree, the three COI sequences of Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. together with a GenBank archived sequence form a monophyletic group nested within Brachygobius (Bootstrap Support [BS] = 100 %). Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. is closely related to B. kabiliensis (BS = 82 %) although this latter species does not form a monophyletic group.</p><p>Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. genetically diverges from B. kabiliensis by 10.25 % and from all other species of Brachygobius by 12.72–15.49 % (Table 3). These values are well above the COI - based standard interspecific threshold of 2–3 % (for example, see April et al. 2011). The intraspecific genetic distance among the three newly determined haplotypes of Brachygobius jennie sp. nov. is 0.00 % (they are identical) indicating a large gap between intra- and interspecific differentiation.</p></div>	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8FF2F897FB3E5BEB948926971D0B85EE	Public Domain	No known copyright restrictions apply. See Agosti, D., Egloff, W., 2009. Taxonomic information exchange and copyright: the Plazi approach. BMC Research Notes 2009, 2:53 for further explanation.		Pensoft via Plazi	Tian, Jiangyan;Wu, Jianyong;Lan, Chunliu;Lavoué, Sébastien;Huang, Jianrong	Tian, Jiangyan, Wu, Jianyong, Lan, Chunliu, Lavoué, Sébastien, Huang, Jianrong (2026): Brachygobius jennie, a new bumblebee goby (Teleostei, Oxudercidae) from Hengqin Island, Guangdong Province, China. Zoosystematics and Evolution 102 (3): 853-863, DOI: 10.3897/zse.102.184142
