Barbantus Parr, 1951
Diagnosis: body moderately elongate and compressed. No premaxillary tusks, but a small spine projecting sideways on each side of tip of lower jaw; a single series of evenly small teeth in upper and lower jaws. Gillrakers 17-20 (3-5 on upper limb). Branchiostegal rays 7-8. No pit behind shoulder girdle. Pyloric caeca 47, unbranched. Dorsal fin origin a little behind midpoint of body, with 15-21 finrays; pectoral fins small, with 2-21 finrays; pelvic fins at about midpoint of body, with 7-8 finrays; anal fin origin below middle of dorsal fin base, with 14-17 finrays. Light organs absent, but a series of pale opalescent scales along midline of belly, possibly luminous. No modified lateral line scales, 42-55 in lateral series, 7-10 above and 7-9 below at origins of dorsal and anal fins. Colour: uniform dark, except for opalescent scales along belly. Size: to 13 cm, usually 7-11 cm.
Habitat: bathypelagic, from 800 m to deeper than 1,000 m. Food: no data. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: Madeira, northward to Bay of Biscay. Elsewhere, southward to off Angola, also Indian Ocean, Gulf of California and western tropical Pacific.
Species 3; in Clofnam area 1.
Recent revisions: Parr (1960), Sazonov (1976).
Species of this genus in the program:
Barbantus curvifrons