[鱼央]属是一类东亚特有的底栖肉食性小型淡水鱼类，分布于中国大陆南部和台湾岛以及朝鲜半岛和日本列岛，其区域性物种分化强烈，是开展东亚生物地理学和进化生物学问题研究的理想类群，有的物种甚至还是地方性经济鱼类。但是，因此类群形态上的保守性，其物种分类存在诸多问题，尤其是中国大陆南部分布的种类，以至于目前对其物种多样性缺乏必要的了解。拟立项目将首先分别依据形态性状、染色体组型和基因序列，采用基于性状/系统树的物种界定方法，识别不同分类方法的操作分类单元；再整合不同方法所获得的信息，依据一致性原则，确立整合操作分类单元；最后采用系统发育物种概念识别物种，进行物种多样性编目。此项目研究将深入地揭示此类群物种多样性，澄清其物种分类上的混乱，为物种多样性资源的保护与利用提供可靠依据，为其进化生物学问题的研究提供框架；籍此项目研究，可促进分类学从传统向现代转型和培养中国分类学人才。

The endemic East Asian amblycipitid catfish genus Liobagrus Hilgendorf,1878 includes a group of torrent,benthic, predatory,and small-sized freshwater fishes so far known from southern mainland China,Taiwan Island, Korean peninsula, and Japanese Islands. Due to high regional differentiation in species, it is a suitable candidate group for studies of East Asian biogeogrpahy and evolutionary biology. Some species of the genus are also local commercial fishes. Unfourtunately, owing to morphological conservatism of this genus, there are many taxonomic problems with its included species, especially those from southern mainland China. As a result , the taxonomy of Liobagrus is poorly known to date, and little has been known about interspecific phylogenetic relationships of the genus.This proposed project aims to firstly use the characte-based or tree-based approach to delimit operational taxonomic units (OUTs) based on morphological characters, chromosomes and gene sequences, respectively; then integrate the above recognized OUTs of different analyses into integrated operational taxonomic units (IOTUs) by congruence principle; and finally recognize species by utilzing phylogenetic species concept.This project will deepen our understaning of species diversity of Liobagrus, clear up existing taxonomic confusions, provide informed support for sustainable utilizationits conservation of its biodiversity resources, and form a framework for investigations of evolutionary biological issues with the group. It also seeks to transform traditional taxonomy into a modern one, and build the capability of Chinese taxonomy of the twenty-first century.