Patagolycus melastomus

description

Description. Body robust, short, ovoid in cross section. Tail laterally compressed especially posteriorly. Head robust, not depressed, as wide as high in both males and females; snout gently sloping. Mouth inferior; lips without lateral lobes. Snout blunt, upper jaw slightly protruding, end of maxilla extending to posterior part of pupil in both males and females. Eyes slightly ellipsoid entering dorsal profile of head. Nasal tube pigmented at base, not reaching upper lip when depressed forward. Gill slit well developed, extending ventrally to below ventral edge of pectoral-fin base, but above pelvic fin insertion. Opercular lobe short, triangular (Fig. 3 a & b). Cephalic lateralis pore system with small pores. Nasal pores 3, one located anteromesial to nasal tube, two other posterodorsal to the nasal tube and the posterior one very small. Postorbital pores 1 and 4 present in all. Suborbital pores 6 + 1, in a reversed L-shaped pattern. Preoperculomandibular pores 8 (Fig. 3 b). Interorbital pore absent. Supratemporal commissure and occipital pores absent. Lateral line mediolateral, extending from postorbital pore 4 to near tail tip. Pectoral-fin origin at body midline; pectoral-fin

Redescription of Iluocoetes Jenyns, 1842; proposal of a new genus, Argentinolycus, for Iluocoetes elongatus (Smitt, 1898), and description of Patagolycus melastomus gen. et sp. nov. (Teleostei, Zoarcidae)

distribution

Distribution. Southwest Atlantic Ocean between 45 º 28 ’ − 51 º 27 ’ S and 60 º 21 ’ − 68 º 50 ’ W, at depths of 164 − 489 m.

Redescription of Iluocoetes Jenyns, 1842; proposal of a new genus, Argentinolycus, for Iluocoetes elongatus (Smitt, 1898), and description of Patagolycus melastomus gen. et sp. nov. (Teleostei, Zoarcidae)

etymology

Etymology. The specific name, melastomus, from the Greek melas (black, dark) and stoma (mouth), for the colour of its orobranchial cavity.

Redescription of Iluocoetes Jenyns, 1842; proposal of a new genus, Argentinolycus, for Iluocoetes elongatus (Smitt, 1898), and description of Patagolycus melastomus gen. et sp. nov. (Teleostei, Zoarcidae)