Channa shingon, new species, is described from small mountainous rivulets associated with the Irrawaddy drainage in western Yunnan Province, China. Its maximum SL of about 100 mm makes it the smallest pelvic-fin bearing dwarf snakehead. Further specific characters are lateral head length 27 – 30 % SL; interorbital width 33 – 35 % HL; 25 – 27 anal-fin rays; 44 – 45 lateral-line scales; 4 – 5 scale rows between dorsal-fin origin and lateral line; 8 – 9 scale rows between lateral line and anal-fin origin; 1 mandibular scale; 43 – 44 vertebrae; inferomesial process of parasphenoid very shallow and straight; dorsal profile conspicuously bulging in front of dorsal fin; juveniles without ocellus-like mark on posterior part of dorsal fin; and a pectoral-fin pattern of 3 – 4 broad gray to black bands alternating with cream to white interspaces, bands increasingly wide towards distal edge of the fin, interspaces equally wide as bands or narrower.

Channa; new species; Irrawaddy; Salween; taxonomy