A new freshwater goby of the genus Rhinogobius from the Honghe (Yuanjiang or Red River) basin, Yunnan Provinces China is described here. This new species, Rhinogobius honghensis sp. nov., can be distinguished by the combination of the following features: (1) fin-rays: D2 I/8-9, A I/7-8, P 16-17; (2) vertebral count 28; (3) squamation: LR 32-34, PreD 0-4; and (4) coloration: all body sides, cheek, and P base with many large dark brown spots. This species is very similar to an allopatric species, Rhinogobius mekongianus (Pellegrin and Fang, 1940) occurring in the Mekong basin by some color pattern, but this new species can be distin-guished by such features as differences of fin-rays counts, squamation, size of the pelvic disc, as well as specific pigmentation patterns.