Assiculoides + Pseudoplesiopinae + Anisochrominae + Congrogadinae

A relationship of Assiculoides to the Pseudoplesiopinae + Anisochrominae + Congrogadinae clade is supported by the following two synapomorphies.

3. Infraorbital bones five or fewer: Although Godkin and Winterbottom (1985: 641) reported that pseudochromines have five infraorbitals, Assiculus and other pseudochromines except Assiculoides are plesiomorphic in having six infraorbital bones (which includes the dermosphenotic and “lachrymal”) (Figure 4 A). Assiculoides and the other subfamilies are derived in having fewer infraorbitals: five in Assiculoides (Figure 4 B); four or five in pseudoplesiopines (Gill & Edwards 1999: fig. 10, Gill & Edwards 2004: fig. 2); three to five in anisochromines (Springer et al. 1977); one to five in congrogadines (Godkin & Winterbottom 1985, Winterbottom 1996). Comparison of the construction of infraorbitals (particularly the consistent – and plesiomorphic – presence of a prominent suborbital shelf on infraorbital 3) and the relative sizes of posterior infraorbitals suggests that the reduction from a six infraorbital condition is a result of “fusion” of infraorbitals 4 and 5.

4. Haemal spine of preural vertebra 2 attached to centrum: Assiculus and other pseudochromines except Assiculoides are plesiomorphic in having the haemal spine of pu2 autogenous (Figures 2 A–B). It is also autogenous in some specimens of the congrogadine genera Natalichthys Winterbottom (1980) and Halidesmus, but it is attached to the pu2 centrum in all other congrogadines and in Assiculoides, anisochromines and pseudoplesiopines (Figures 3 A–B, Springer et al. 1977, Godkin & Winterbottom 1985, Gill & Edwards 1999, Gill & Fricke 2001). Variation within the Congrogadinae is not unexpected given their eel-like shape (see discussion of character 1). This character was previously identified by Godkin and Winterbottom as a synapomorphy of the Pseudoplesiopinae + Anisochrominae + Congrogadinae .