Updated 6 Dec. 2024
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Microstoma Cuvier 1816 tautonymous with Gasteropelecus microstoma Risso 1810; micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to its small, oval mouth

Microstoma australis Gon & Stewart 2014 Latin for southern, referring to distribution in southwestern Pacific Ocean off New Zealand and Australia

Microstoma microstoma (Risso 1810) micro-, from mikrós (Gr. μικρός), small; stóma (Gr. στόμα), mouth, referring to its small, oval mouth

Nansenia Jordan & Evermann 1896 –ia (L. suffix), belonging to: “our friend” Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930), author of a study of the development of hagfishes, and “since noted as an intrepid arctic explorer” (and later Nobel Peace Prize laureate)

Nansenia ahlstromi Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 in honor of the late Elbert H. Ahlstrom (1910–1979), Southwest Fisheries Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, for contributions to the knowledge of pelagic fishes

Nansenia antarctica Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 –ica (L.), belonging to: southern part of subantarctic region between antarctic and subtropical convergences of the Pacific Ocean, where it occurs

Nansenia ardesiaca Jordan & Thompson 1914 Latin for slate-colored, presumably referring to its “brilliant silvery” coloration with scales of a “bright, silvery appearance”

Nansenia atlantica Blache & Rossignol 1962 –ica (L.), belonging to: referring to its distribution in the Eastern Atlantic

Nansenia boreacrassicauda Poulsen 2015 boréa (Gr. βορέα), north wind (in a broader sense, subarctic or northern), referring to distribution of type specimens; crassus (L.), thick, fat or stout, and cauda (L.), tail, referring to its stubby caudal peduncle

Nansenia candida Cohen 1958 Latin for shining white, clear or bright,, referring to its bright, silvery appearance

Nansenia crassa Lavenberg 1965 Latin for thick, fat or stout, referring to its “bulky, stout appearance”

Nansenia groenlandica (Reinhardt 1840) –ica (L.), belonging to: Greenland, type locality

Nansenia iberica Matallanas 1985 –ica (L.), belonging to: Iberian Peninsula of Spain, type locality

Nansenia indica Kobyliansky 1992 –ica (L.), belonging to: Indian Ocean near coast of Mozambique, type locality

Nansenia longicauda Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 longus (L.), long; cauda (L.), tail, referring to its long and slender caudal peduncle

Nansenia macrolepis (Gilchrist 1922) macro-, from makrós (Gr. μακρός), long or large; lepίs (Gr. λεπίς), scale, referring to its “large, thin and deciduous” scales

Nansenia megalopa Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 mégas (Gr. μέγας), large or great, and opa, from ṓps (Gr. ὦψ), eye, referring to its “extraordinarily large” eye

Nansenia oblita (Facciolà 1887) Latin for forgotten, overlooked or neglected, allusion not explained, perhaps referring to how previous ichthyologists had overlooked this species, presuming its differences were due to “simple individual variation” among Microstoma argenteum (=M. microstoma) in the Mediterranean

Nansenia obscura Kobyliansky & Usachev 1992 Latin for dark, referring to dark body color of deep-black scale pockets

Nansenia pelagica Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 –ica (L.), belonging to: from pelágios (Gr. πελάγιος), “of the sea,” referring to its “pelagic life”

Nansenia schmitti (Fowler 1934) in honor of American biologist Waldo L. Schmitt (1887–1977), curator of marine invertebrates at the U.S. National Museum

Nansenia tenera Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 Latin for soft, referring to the “consistency” of its body

Nansenia tenuicauda Kawaguchi & Butler 1984 tenuis (L.), thin or slender; cauda (L.), tail, referring to its slender caudal peduncle

Xenophthalmichthys Regan 1925 xeno-, from xenikós (Gr. ξενικός), strange or foreign (i.e., different), and ophthalmós (Gr. ὀφθαλμός), eye, related to Microstoma but distinguished by its telescopic eyes; ichthýs (Gr. ἰχθύς), fish

Xenophthalmichthys danae Regan 1925 in honor of the Danish fishery research vessel Dana, which collected holotype