PHOSICHTHYIDAE, Weitzman, 1974

Villarins, Bárbara T., Dario, Fabio Di, Eduardo, Leandro N., Lucena-Frédou, Flávia, Bertrand, Arnaud, Prokofiev, Artem M. & Mincarone, Michael M., 2022, Deep-sea dragonfishes (Teleostei: Stomiiformes) collected from off northeastern Brazil, with a review of the species reported from the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone, Neotropical Ichthyology (e 220004) 20 (2), pp. 1-78 : 24

PHOSICHTHYIDAE

The Phosichthyidae is a family of meso- and bathypelagic fishes with a wide distribution in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific oceans (Kenaley, Stewart, 2015d). A total of 24 species are recognized in the genera Ichthyococcus Bonaparte, 1840 , Phosichthys Hutton, 1872 , Pollichthys Grey, 1959 , Polymetme McCulloch, 1926 , Vinciguerria Jordan & Evermann, 1896, Woodsia Grey, 1959 , and Yarrella Goode & Bean, 1896 (Fricke et al., 2022). Phosichthyids are characterized by an elongate and laterally compressed body, with two rows of serial photophores, photophores present on isthmus, and chin barbel absent (Harold, 2003; Kenaley, Stewart, 2015d). Except for Polymetme and Yarrella , the species of Phosichthyidae have two orbital photophores (suborbital and postorbital) (Harold, 2003).

Nine species of the Phosichthyidae were previously reported in Brazilian waters, in the genera Ichthyococcus , Phosichthys , Pollichthys , Polymetme , and Vinciguerria (Gorbunova, 1972; Krefft, 1983; Haimovici et al., 1994; Vasconcelos-Filho et al., 1996; Figueiredo et al., 2002; Menezes et al., 2003; Mincarone et al., 2004; Bernardes et al., 2005; Bonecker, Castro, 2006; Braga et al., 2007; Haimovici et al., 2008; Costa, Mincarone, 2010; Bonecker et al., 2012, 2014, 2019; Perez et al., 2013; Lins Oliveira et al., 2015; Pinheiro et al., 2015, 2020; Mincarone et al., 2017; Judkins, Haedrich, 2018; Melo et al., 2020; Tab. 2). Melo et al. (2020: 201) included Polymetme corythaeola (Alcock, 1898) in a list of Brazilian deep-sea fishes. However, as far as we were able to check, there is no confirmed records of that species in the Brazilian EEZ. The record of Haimovici et al. (1994) of P. corythaeola in southern Brazil actually refers to P. thaeocoryla Parin & Borodulina, 1990 (Menezes et al., 2003). All species of the Phosichthyidae identified in the ABRACOS expeditions and listed below were previously reported for Brazilian waters.