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Pogonophryne

Pogonophryne is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the subfamily Artedidraconinae, the barbeled plunderfishes. They are native to the Southern Ocean.

Taxonomy

Pogonophryne was first described as a genus in 1914 by the English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan when he described a new species of fish, Pogonophryne scotti, which had been collected on the Terra Nova Expedition in the Ross Sea. P. scotti is, therefore, the type species of Pogonophryne by monotypy. The genus name is a compound of pogonos meaning "beard", a reference to the barbel on the chin of P. scotti, and "phryne" which means "toad", possibly an allusion to the bumps and knobs on the head, like the skin of a toad.

Species

There are currently 28 recognized species in this genus:

Characteristics

Pogonophryne plunderfishes have a broad head which is flattened with post-temporal ridges which vary from weakly to well developed. They have a snout which is longer than the diameter of the eye and a broad space between the eyes. The mental barbel, the barbel on the chin which characterises the barbeled plunderfishes, is tapered to a point or expanded at its tip to a varying extent and frequently has branched or simple processes. The upper lateral line has tubular scales at the front and disc-shaped scales towards the back. The middle lateral line normally has disc-shaped scales to the front and tubular scales to the rear, frequently these are interspersed with disc-shaped scales. The maximum length of these fishes varies from a standard length of in P. albipinna to a total length of in P. neyelovi.

Distribution, habitat and biology

Pogonophryne plunderfishes are found in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica reaching as far north as the South Shetland Islands. They are bathydemersal or bathypelagic in deeper water typically at depths greater than . Their biology is little known but they are known to feed on polychaetes and crustaceans such as mysids, isopods and copepods.

References