''Allocareproctus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family

Liparidae The Liparidae, commonly known as snailfish or sea snails, are a family of marine scorpaeniform fishes. Widely distributed from the Arctic to Antarctic Oceans, including the oceans in between, the snailfish family contains more than 30 genera ...

, the snailfishes. These fish are found in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Allocareproctus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1993 by the Russian

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Dmitry Leonidovich Pitruk Dmitri (russian: Дми́трий); Church Slavic form: Dimitry or Dimitri (); ancient Russian forms: D'mitriy or Dmitr ( or ) is a male given name common in Orthodox Christian culture, the Russian version of Greek Demetrios (Δημήτριος ...

and

Vladimir Vladimirovich Fedorov Vladimir may refer to: Names * Vladimir (name) for the Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak and Slovenian spellings of a Slavic name * Uladzimir for the Belarusian version of the name * Volodymyr for the Ukr ...

with ''Careproctus jordani'' as its only species. ''C. jordani'' had been described in 1930 by Charles Victor Burke with its type locality in Sagami Bay in Japan. In 2006 James Wilder Orr and Morgan Scott Busby reviewed the genus, described 4 new species from the Aleutian Islands and confirmed the genus as a valid genus.

Etymology

''Allocareproctus'' is made up of ''Careproctus'', the original genus of ''A. jordani'', prefixed with ''allo'', which means "other", i.e. close to Careproctus.

Species

''Allocareproctus'' has 5 species currently classified within it: * ''

Allocareproctus jordani ''Allocareproctus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Liparidae, the snailfishes. These fish are found in the northern Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Allocareproctus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 199 ...

'' (

Burke Burke is an Anglo-Norman Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had the surname ''de Burgh'' which was gaelicised ...

, 1930) (Cherry snailfish) * '' Allocareproctus kallaion'' J. W. Orr & Busby, 2006 (Combed snailfish) * '' Allocareproctus tanix'' J. W. Orr & Busby, 2006 (Peach snailfish) * ''

Allocareproctus unangas ''Allocareproctus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Liparidae, the snailfishes. These fish are found in the northern Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Allocareproctus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 199 ...

'' J. W. Orr & Busby, 2006 (Goldeneye snailfish) * ''

Allocareproctus ungak ''Allocareproctus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Liparidae, the snailfishes. These fish are found in the northern Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Allocareproctus'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 199 ...

'' J. W. Orr & Busby, 2006 (Whiskered snailfish)

Characteristics

''Allocareproctus'' is characterized by the first 4 to 8 rays of the dorsal fin having their tips free of the fin membrane and they have

papillae Papilla (Latin, 'nipple') or papillae may refer to: In animals * Papilla (fish anatomy), in the mouth of fish * Basilar papilla, a sensory organ of lizards, amphibians and fish * Dental papilla, in a developing tooth * Dermal papillae, part of ...

associated with of the sensory system on the head. In the skull the symplectic bone extends to the central faces of the quadrate bone and the metapterygoid. The largest species is ''A. jordani'' which has a maximum published total length of .

Distribution and habitat

''Allocareproctus'' snailfishes are only found in the northern Pacific Ocean from Japan to the Aleutian Islands. They are bathydemersal fishes found in deep water down to .

References

Liparidae {{Scorpaeniformes-stub