Garra

Kottelat, Maurice, 2025, Laogarra heokheei, a new genus and species of ' garra' from north-eastern Laos (Teleostei: Cyprinidae), Zootaxa 5666 (3), pp. 389-407 : 396

On Garra , 'Garra' and garras, and names

A number of labeonine fishes share the presence of a complex structure that has variously been referred to as a 'sucking disc', 'suctorial disc', 'mental disc', 'lower lip', 'disc on lower lip', 'oromandibular disc', 'orostructure', etc. These fishes have usually been placed in the genus Garra . Here, this structure is simply referred to as a 'disc', without adjective qualifying its position, ontogeny, structure or supposed function. These fishes will be called here under the collective vernacular name 'garra' (plural garras).

With time, a number of genera were recognized within garras, based mainly on the morphology of the disc. With the advent of molecular analyses, it became apparent that the garras do not constitute a monophyletic lineage, but that they belong to two distinct clades, nested in the subtribes Garraina and Semilabeoina , in each together with species/genera lacking a disc ( Yang et al., 2012; Li et al., 2024).

The names 'Semilabeoina' and 'Osteochilina' have been used since Yang et al. (2012) as informal names for two clades for which no family-group names are available. Since then, these names have been used by several authors without, however, making them formally available. There is no reason that this situation should perdure with a mix of valid names and informal names. I here formally establish the two names. I treat them as subtribes of tribe Labeonini (as had been done by Yang et al. (2012)), but the ranking is subjective and they could just as well be tribes Semilabeoini and Osteochilini of subfamily Labeoninae .

Semilabeoina , new subtribe. Type genus Semilabeo Peters, 1881 . Diagnosis: this subtribe was informally called 'Semilabeoina' by Yang et al. (2012: 368) who distinguished it as a "robustly supported clade" within the tribe Labeonini . Besides the molecular characters supporting Yang et al.'s tree, a number of morphological characters are shared by the members of the Semilabeoina , but not all are present together in all genera. Most genera have most of the following characters: lower lip and/or gular area thick and fleshy, often elevated, often entirely or partly covered by papillae, in various shapes including disc, lobe, or swelling; lower lip partly or completely missing, leaving anterior edge of lower jaw exposed, sharp; upper lip present or absent; upper lip and upper jaw mostly covered by fleshy rostral fold, which in most genera is covered by papillae, or has a crenulated or fimbriate edge. Limited observations of juveniles suggest that the structures in the gular area might result from the medial confluence of tissues originating from either side of the throat.

Osteochilina , new subtribe. Type genus Osteochilus Günther, 1868 . Diagnosis: this subtribe was informally called 'Osteochilina' by Yang et al. (2012: 368) who distinguished it as a "robustly supported clade" within the tribe Labeonini . Besides the molecular characters supporting Yang et al.'s tree, a number of morphological characters are shared by members of the Osteochilina , but none can really be used alone to diagnose the whole subtribe. Most genera have the upper lip separated from the rostral cap by a deep groove, smooth, papillated, or crenulated; the rostral cap covers part of or the whole of the upper lip, its margin is smooth, notched, crenulated or papillated; the lower lip is present; there is no spinous ray in the dorsal and anal fins.

Admittedly, these diagnoses are not perfect and do not apply exactly to all genera and species included in the subtribes. Nevertheless, the names satisfy all the criteria of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, art. 13.1 and are now available for formal use.