Updated 19 Feb. 2025
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Cyclothone Goode & Bean 1883 cyclo-, from kýklos (Gr. κύκλος), ring or circle (i.e., round); othónē (Gr. ὀθόνη), linen or veil, referring to rounded opercular flaps of C. lusca (=microdon)

Cyclothone acclinidens Garman 1899 acclinis (L.), inclined; dens (L.), tooth, referring to maxillary teeth “more or less closely inclined forward toward the jaw, slightly bent outward near the points”

Cyclothone alba Brauer 1906 Latin for white, proposed as a lighter-colored (off-white) variety of C. signata

Cyclothone atraria Gilbert 1905 apparently incorrect comparative of ater (L.), black (correct would be atrior or atria), referring to uniform black coloration on head and body, and apparently also on vertical fins

Cyclothone braueri Jespersen & Tåning 1926 in honor of German zoologist August Brauer (1863–1917), Berlin Zoological Museum, who, in 1906, was “the first to reduce to order the chaos in which the Gonostoma–Cyclothone group was then entangled”

Cyclothone kobayashii Miya 1994 in honor of Bert Nobuo Kobayashi, who first recognized this species as distinct from C. pseudopallida in his 1973 Ph.D. dissertation

Cyclothone livida Brauer 1902 Latin for bluish or black and blue, referring to its coloration

Cyclothone microdon (Günther 1878) micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to “very fine” teeth in upper jaw

Cyclothone obscura Brauer 1902 Latin for dark, referring to its dark-black coloration

Cyclothone pallida Brauer 1902 Latin for pale or pallid, presumably referring to its coloration, although it is described as light to dark brown

Cyclothone parapallida Badcock 1982 pará (Gr. παρά), near, “closely related” to C. pallida

Cyclothone pseudoacclinidens Quéro 1974 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, referring to its similarity to and previous misidentification as C. acclinidens

Cyclothone pseudopallida Mukhacheva 1964 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false, referring to its similarity to and previous misidentification as C. pallida

Cyclothone pygmaea Jespersen & Tåning 1926 from pygmaī́os (Gr. πυγμαῖος), small or dwarf, a “mere dwarf” compared with C. microdon, “the species whose name it has hitherto borne,” attaining maturity at a length of 20 mm or less

Cyclothone signata Garman 1899 Latin for marked, presumably referring to any or all of the following: a pair of elongate spots on forehead; a series of spots or short transverse stripes on flank; spots between bases of dorsal- and anal-fin rays; one or two transverse streaks across bases of caudal-fin rays; a number of irregular flecks and dots on back and gill covers

Diplophos Günther 1873 diplo-, from diplóos (Gr. διπλόος) or diploū́s (διπλοῦς), twofold or double; phṓs (Gr. φῶς), light, referring to double series of phosphorescent organs that run along lower side of body and tail

Diplophos australis Ozawa, Oda & Ida 1990 Latin for southern, referring to its distribution in the Southern Ocean and/or to its being the most southernly species of the genus

Diplophos orientalis Matsubara 1940 Latin for eastern, described as an eastern (i.e., Japanese) subspecies of D. taenia

Diplophos pacificus Günther 1889 –icus (L.), belonging to: mid-Pacific Ocean, type locality, compared with D. taenia, known only from the Atlantic

Diplophos proximus Parr 1931 Latin for nearest or next, allusion not explained, possibly referring to its similarity to D. taenia

Diplophos rebainsi Krefft & Parin 1972 in honor of Eduard Rebains, captain of the Russian research vessel Akademic Kurchatov, which collected holotype

Diplophos taenia Günther 1873 Latin for band or ribbon, from tainía (Gr. ταινία), allusion not explained, but there are two possibilities: 1) illustration shows a thin band running along the side, although this character is not mentioned in the text; 2) refers to band-shaped body

Diplophos vicinia Koeda & Ho 2019 Latin for neighbor, referring to last two AC (between anal-fin origin and end of caudal peduncle) photophores closer to each other than distance in between preceding photophores

Gonostoma Rafinesque 1810 gōnía– (Gr. γωνία), corner or angle; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to angular jaws of G. denudatum

Gonostoma atlanticum Norman 1930 –icum (L.), belonging to: proposed as an Eastern Atlantic subspecies of G. denudatum (although it is circumglobal in warm seas, including the Hawaiian Islands)

Gonostoma denudatum Rafinesque 1810 Latin for nude or uncovered, referring to scaleless body of specimen Rafinesque examined, apparently having lost its thin deciduous scales

Manducus Goode & Bean 1896 Latin for glutton, but also referring to Manducus, a “grotesque, marked figure representing a person chewing, used in the Roman theater in classical days,” allusion not explained, possibly referring to “very wide” mouth of M. maderensis

Manducus greyae (Johnson 1970) in honor of the late Marion Grey (1911-1964), Chicago Natural History Museum, for her contributions to our knowledge of deep-sea fishes, especially gonostomatids

Manducus maderensis (Johnson 1890) –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: Madeira, where holotype was obtained from a fish market in Funchal

Margrethia Jespersen & Tåning 1919 –ia (L. suffix), belonging to: Danish “investigation ship” Margrethe, from which holotype of M. obtusirostra was collected

Margrethia obtusirostra Jespersen & Tåning 1919 obtusus (L.), blunt or dull; rostra, incorrect spelling of rostrum (L.), snout, allusion not explained but accompanying illustration appears to show a blunt or rounded snout

Margrethia valentinae Parin 1982 in honor of Valentina Aleksandrovna Mukhacheva, specialist in gonostomatid systematics, who was the first to notice this species as distinct from M. obtusirostra

Sigmops Gill 1883 presumably named for the Greek letter sigma (Σς), or “s” in Latin; ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye or face (i.e., appearance), allusion not explained nor evident

Sigmops bathyphilus (Vaillant 1884) deep-loving, from bathýs (Gr. βαθύς), deep, and phílos (Gr. φίλος), friend or fond of, referring to capture of holotype at 2,220 m

Sigmops ebelingi (Grey 1960) in honor of American ichthyologist Alfred W. Ebeling (1931–2022), Scripps Institution of Oceanography, for his “interest and assistance” during the course of Grey’s preliminary review of the family

Sigmops elongatus (Günther 1878) Latin for prolonged, presumably referring to its body shape, its height 1/7 its length (minus tail)

Sigmops gracilis (Günther 1878) Latin for thin or slender, referring to its “very slender and narrow” tail

Sigmops longipinnis (Mukhacheva 1972) longus (L.), long; pinnis, scientific Neo-Latin adjective of pinna (L.), fin, i.e., finned, referring to its longer paired fins compared to S. elongatus

Zaphotias Goode & Bean 1898 zá– (Gr. ζά), intensive particle, i.e., very; phōtō– (Gr. φωτω-), combining form of phṓs (φῶς), light; –ías (-ίας), suffix used in some Greek names of fishes (e.g., Xiphias), referring to row of single row of photophores on body [replacement name for Bonapartia Goode & Bean 1896, preoccupied in birds]

Zaphotias pedaliotus (Goode & Bean 1896) pidaliotós (Gr. πηδἀλἰωτός), furnished with a rudder, referring to anterior third of anal fin, which is “greatly prolonged, falcate in form, giving to the lower outline of the fin a paraboloid curve,” which can be said to resemble the rudder of a ship