A new species record of Ichthyophis moustakius Kamei, Wilkinson, Gower, and Biju, 2009 (Gymnophiona: Ichthyophiidae) from China

A new species record of Ichthyophis moustakius is documented from southern Gaoligong Mountain, Yunnan Province, China, based on integrative taxonomic evidence from morphological and molecular analyses. Phylogenetic reconstruction using mitochondrial DNA placed the newly collected Chinese specimens within a strongly supported clade comprising recognized I. moustakius specimens from India. Uncorrected pairwise distances of 16S rRNA gene sequences between Chinese and Indian specimens ranged from 1.2% to 2.6%, indicating minimal genetic divergence. Morphological assessments revealed concordance between the Yingjiang specimens and those from the type locality in Manipur, India. Furthermore, cytochrome b (cytb) gene analysis excluded the possibility of misidentification with Ichthyophis kohtaoensis. These findings extend the known distribution of Ichthyophis in China, raising the number of recognized species to three, and offer detailed morphological characterizations of both adult and larval stages.