Melanostomias Brauer, 1902
Body moderately long, its depth less than 10 times in SL. Head with short, blunt, rounded snout; lower jaw not longer than upper jaw, not curved strongly upward; barbel usually about equal to head length, but up to 1/2 of SL in one species; terminal end of barbel consisting of a bulb or a short, wide, flattened tip, or a long, slender flattened tip. Pectoral fin with 5-6 rays, all about equal in length, unbranched distally, and without lumps of luminous material; pelvic fins low on body, their insertions close together near mid-ventral line; bases of dorsal and anal fins about equally long, their origins approximately opposed; no dorsal adipose fin. Photophores in ventral row between pectoral and pelvic fin insertions (PV) 23-30; no pale loop or line on flanks; post-orbital luminous organ large, half as long as, to considerably longer than, eye diameter, more or less triangular in shape; no pre-orbital or sub-orbital organs; no large patches of luminous material on head behind eye.
See family for biology, etc.
Species about 18; in Clofnam area 6.
Recent revisions: Regan and Trewavas (1929), Morrow and Gibbs (1964), Parin and Pokhilskaya (1978), none entirely satisfactory. Work in progress by Gibbs.
Species of this genus in the program:
Melanostomias bartonbeani
Melanostomias biseriatus
Melanostomias macrophotus
Melanostomias melanops
Melanostomias tentaculatus
Melanostomias valdiviae