Liobagrus is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of catfish

Catfish

Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...

es (order

Order (biology)

In scientific classification used in biology, the order is# a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, family, genus, and species, with order fitting in between class and family...

 Siluriformes) of the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 Amblycipitidae

Amblycipitidae

Amblycipitidae is a family of catfishes, commonly known as torrent catfishes. It includes three genera, Amblyceps, Liobagrus, and Xiurenbagrus.-Taxonomy:...

.

Taxonomy

No shared derived

Derived

In phylogenetics, a derived trait is a trait that is present in an organism, but was absent in the last common ancestor of the group being considered. This may also refer to structures that are not present in an organism, but were present in its ancestors, i.e. traits that have undergone secondary...

 characteristic has been found to diagnose the genus Liobagrus. However, it is maintained that this genus is currently monophyletic

Monophyly

In common cladistic usage, a monophyletic group is a taxon which forms a clade, meaning that it contains all the descendants of the possibly hypothetical closest common ancestor of the members of the group. The term is synonymous with the uncommon term holophyly...

. Liobagrus has been placed in the family Bagridae

Bagridae

Bagridae are a family of catfish that originate from Africa and Asia from Japan to Borneo. These fish are commonly known as naked catfishes or bagrid catfishes.Large Bagrids are important as food fish. Some species are kept as aquarium fishes....

. Later, it was found to more closely resemble Amblyceps

Amblyceps

Amblyceps is a genus of catfishes of the family Amblycipitidae.-Phylogeny:The genera Amblyceps and Liobagrus are sister group pair that is, in turn, sister to Xiurenbagrus.-Distribution and habitat:...

, and was transferred to Amblycipitidae.

Xiurenbagrus

Xiurenbagrus

Xiurenbagrus is a genus of catfishes of the family Amblycipitidae. It includes two species.-Taxonomy:X. xiurenensis was first described in 1981 as Liobagrus xiurenensis. However, it was realized that Liobagrus would not be monophyletic with the inclusion of this species, so Xiurenbagrus was erected...

was erected because Liobagrus would not be monophyletic with Liobagrus xiurenensis, now Xiurenbagrus xiurenensis. The genera Amblyceps and Liobagrus are sister group

Cladistics

Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...

 pair that is, in turn, sister to Xiurenbagrus.

Distribution

Liobagrus fishes are distributed in the Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

 basin, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, and the Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 Peninsula.

Description

The adipose fin is confluent with the caudal fin. The nostrils are far apart, unlike those found in Amblyceps. Most Liobagrus species grow to about 100 millimetre

Millimetre

The millimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length....

s (3.94 in

Inch

An inch is the name of a unit of length in a number of different systems, including Imperial units, and United States customary units. There are 36 inches in a yard and 12 inches in a foot...

) SL

Fish measurement

Fish measurement refers to the measuring of the length of individual fish and of various parts of their anatomy. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology.-Overall length:...

.

Species

• Liobagrus andersoni Regan, 1908
• Liobagrus anguillicauda Nichols, 1926
• Liobagrus formosanus Regan, 1908
• Liobagrus kingi Tchang, 1935
• Liobagrus marginatoides (Wu, 1930)
• Liobagrus marginatus (Günther, 1892)
• Liobagrus mediadiposalis Mori, 1936
• Liobagrus nantoensis Oshima, 1919
• Liobagrus nigricauda
  Liobagrus nigricauda
  Liobagrus nigricauda is a species of fish in the Amblycipitidae family. It is endemic to China.-Source:* Kottelat, M. 1996. . Downloaded on 4 August 2007....
  
  Regan, 1904
• Liobagrus obesus Son, Kim & Choo, 1987
• Liobagrus reinii Hilgendorf, 1878
• Liobagrus styani Regan, 1908