Monolene, the deepwater lefteye flounders, is a genus of small, mainly deepwater flatfish from the Atlantic and East Pacific.
Their eyes are located on the left side of their body, and thus they have long been placed in the "lefteye flounder" family, Bothidae. However, more recent studies have split up the family into multiple families, with Monolene being identified as the sister group to the family Taeniopsettidae (formerly the subfamily Taeniopsettinae). For this reason, it was placed its own family, Monolenidae, in 2025.
Species
The currently recognized species in this genus are:
- Monolene antillarum <small>Norman, 1933</small> (slim flounder)
- Monolene asaedai <small>H. W. Clark, 1936</small> (Asaedae flounder)
- Monolene atrimana <small>Goode & T. H. Bean, 1886</small> (longfinned deepwater flounder)
- Monolene danae <small>Bruun, 1937</small>
- Monolene dubiosa <small>Garman, 1899</small> (Acapulco flounder)
- Monolene helenensis <small>Amaoka & Imamura, 2000</small>
- Monolene maculipinna <small>Garman, 1899</small> (Pacific deepwater flounder)
- Monolene megalepis <small>Woods, 1961</small>
- Monolene mertensi <small>(Poll, 1959)</small> (Marten's moonflounder)
- Monolene microstoma <small>Cadenat, 1937</small> (smallmouth moonflounder)
- Monolene sessilicauda <small>Goode, 1880</small> (deepwater flounder)
References