MORPHOLOGICAL VARIATION BETWEEN SINIBOTIA SUPERCILIARIS AND SINIBOTIA REEVESAE WITH NOTES ON THEIR VALIDITIES

Sinibotia reevesae and Sinibotia superciliaris are endemic fish with similar morphology that live only in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The current study assessed 10 traditional morphological parameters and 20 truss network features of 210 specimens from these two species using traditional taxonomy method and biological characteristics. 69 specimens of S. reevesae were collected from Zizhong section of the Tuojiang River, a tributary river of the Yangtze River and 141 specimens of S. superciliaris were collected from Zizhong section of the Tuojiang River, Yibin and Nanxi section of the Yangtze River. PCA analysis could not distinguish morphological difference of these two species, although there were significant differences in other aspects, such as the height of caudal peduncle, the length of rostral barbel, the distance of D1-3 (from the pectoral fin base to the origin of pelvic fin base), D7-9 (from the end of anal fin base to the ventral origin of caudal fin base) and D9-10 (from the ventral origin of caudal fin base to the dorsal origin of caudal fin base). The S. reevesae and S. superciliaris should be considered as separate species based on characteristics of the reproductive biology. Appropriate evaluation criteria should be chosen to evaluate the species validities while use truss network features, and the data analysis should combine with the biological characteristics of species.