Simenchelys (Gill MS) Goode and Bean, 1879
Diagnosis: body elongate, anus a little before midpoint of body. Head blunt; anterior nostrils in a frontal position, posterior nostrils in front of eye. Mouth restricted to terminal circular opening. Teeth with cutting edge, uniserial on both jaws. Gill openings separate, ventrolateral. Dorsal and anal fins confluent with conspicuous caudal fin; pectoral fins present. Lateral line with 44 preanal pores, 2 prepectoral pores. Vertebrae: total 116-125; abdominal 45-49. Scales rudimentary, embedded. Colour: uniform dark brown, dorsal and anal fin margins whitish; juveniles paler with black belly. Size: to 61 cm.
Habitat: benthopelagic on continental slope and upper abyssal depths, from 100 to 3,000 m; reported to be parasitic on fishes, photographed free-living near the bottom by bathyscaphe (Azores). Food: invertebrates (epibenthic copepods and amphipods) and fishes. Reproduction: eggs probably pelagic; leptocephalus unknown; one late metamorphic specimen recorded from central north Pacific.
Distribution: eastern Atlantic, the Azores and Madeira. Elsewhere, western Atlantic and central North Pacific.
Species 1.
Recent revision: Solomon-Raju and Rosenblatt (1971).
Species of this genus in the program:
Simenchelys parasitica