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Researchers from Sun Yat-sen University and collaborating institutions have discovered a new species of bumblebee goby on Hengqin Island in Guangdong Province, marking the first recorded presence of this fish genus in China. The discovery and description of Brachygobius jennie, detailed in a newly published study in Zoosystematics and Evolution, expands the known geographical distribution of these small coastal fishes northeastward into the subtropical mangrove wetlands of the Zhujiang River Estuary.
Jiangyan Tian, the first author of this study and a postgraduate student at SYSU under the supervision of Jianrong Huang, recalled: “One day, during fieldwork in the wetlands of the Zhujiang River Estuary, my attention was drawn to small fish living close to the substrate in shallow waters. At first, I thought they were juveniles. However, their body marking pattern did not match that of any fish species known from this region.”
Back in the laboratory, Jianrong Huang encouraged Jiangyan Tian to investigate these specimens further using integrated genetic and morphological approaches. With the assistance of Chunliu Lan and Jianyong Wu, she discovered that they belonged to a previously undescribed species of bumblebee goby. This finding was unexpected, as the fish fauna of this region is generally considered to be relatively well documented.
