Huigobio Fang, 1938

Type species. Huigobio chenhsienensis Fang, 1938

Diagnosis. Huigobio, as here delimited, belongs in the subtribe Armatogobionina, tribe Gobionini, subfamily Gobioninae . This subtribe also includes the following six genera: Abbottina, Biwia, Microphysogobio, Platysmacheilus, Pseudogobio and Saurogobio . These seven genera differ from all other genera of the Gobioninae in having thick, well-developed and usually papillated lips, and reduced gas bladders (the anterior chamber enveloped in a thick fibrous capsule, and the posterior chamber outside the capsule and smaller).

Huigobio is distinguished from all other genera of Armatogobionina by unique modifications in the lower lip (Fig. 1 A–B). The lower lip is modified into two lateral lobes and a central pad. Each lateral lobe is expanded as a wing-shaped flap fully covered with papillae and contacting its counterpart posteromedially, but is not completely confluent. The central pad is small and heart-shaped, but is not longitudinally bisected. Huigobio is similar to Microphysogobio and Platysmacheilus in the shared possession of sharp horny sheaths on the cutting edges of upper and lower jaws (Fig. 1 A–D), by which these three genera can be easily distinguished from all other genera of the Armatogobionina (Fig. 1 E–F). Huigobio is similar to Microphysogobio, with which it shares a heart-shaped central pad of the lower lip. It is distinguished from this genus by having a lower lip with a smaller (vs. larger), heart-shaped, longitudinally non-bisected (vs. bisected) central pad, and two lateral lobes that are in contact posteromedially (vs. completely separated by the central pad) (Fig.1 A–C). Huigobio is similar to Platysmacheilus in the shared presence of well-developed, papillated, and wing-shaped lateral lobes of the lower lip. It is distinct from this genus in possessing a lower lip with (vs. without) a heart-shaped central pad, and two lateral lobes that are in contact posteromedially but are not confluent (vs. confluent) (Fig. 1 A, B, and D).