Bathophilus Giglioli, 1884
Body short and deep to moderately long, its depth less than 10 times in SL. Head with moderately long, tapering, blunt-ended snout; lower jaw not longer than upper, not curved strongly upward; eye small; barbel long, slender, unpigmented, apparently simple, without modified tip; barbel probably longer than body, but usually broken. Pectoral fin with 1-48 rays, all long and thin, tips unbranched and without lumps of luminous material; pelvic fins high up on body, near midline of flanks, their insertions widely separated; bases of dorsal and anal fins about equally long, their origins approximately opposed; no dorsal adipose fin. Photophores in serial rows small, difficult to discern from other body photophores; 8-23 in ventral row between pectoral fin and pelvic fin insertions (PV); no pale loop or line on sides; small photophores dense on entire body; post-orbital luminous organ smaller than, to twice as long as, eye diameter, oval in shape; no pre-orbital or sub-orbital organs; no large patches of luminous material on head behind eye; a small, roundish patch sometimes present near post-orbital organ.
See family for biology, etc.
Species about 14; in Clofnam area 3.
Recent revisions: Barnett and Gibbs (1968).
Species of this genus in the program:
Bathophilus digitatus
Bathophilus nigerrimus
Bathophilus vaillanti