Updated 3 Oct. 2024
PDF version (with illustrations and additional information)
Pugnose Parasitic Eel
Subfamily SIMENCHELYINAE Gill 1879
Simenchelys Gill 1879 simus (L.), flat- or pug-nosed, referring to short, blunt snout; énchelys (Gr. ἔγχελυς), eel
Simenchelys parasitica Gill 1879 Latin for parasitic, referring to its presumed parasitic behavior (Gill reported specimens burrowing into the flesh of a halibut)
Arrowtooth Eels or Mustard Eels
Subfamily ILYOPHINAE Jordan & Davis 1891
Atractodenchelys Robins & Robins 1970 átraktos (Gr. ἄτρακτος), arrow, and odon (Gr.), tooth, referring to distinctive triangular vomerine teeth of this and related genera; énchelys (Gr. ἔγχελυς), eel
Atractodenchelys brevitrunca Vo & Ho 2020 brevis (L.), short; truncus (L.), trunk (but treated here as an adjective, trunked), referring to relatively short trunk, usually shorter (but sometimes equal to or slightly longer) than head length
Atractodenchelys phrix Robins & Robins 1970 phríx (Gr. φρίξ), ruffling or ripple, referring to its plicate snout
Atractodenchelys robinsorum Karmovskaya 2003 –orum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: in honor of Catherine H. and C. Richard Robins (1928–2020), “renowned American ichthyologists, investigators of synaphobranchid eels”
Dysomma Alcock 1889 dys- (Gr. δυς-), prefix indicating something negative or unfavorable; ómma (Gr. ὄμμα), eye, referring to minute eyes of D. bucephalus, concealed beneath skin
Dysomma achiropteryx Prokofiev 2019 a-, Greek privative, i.e., without; cheír or cheirós (Gr. χείρ, genitive χειρός), hand, homologous to the pectoral fin; pteryx (Gr. πτέρυξ), wing or fin, referring to absence of pectoral fins
Dysomma alticorpus Fricke, Golani, Appelbaum-Golani & Zajonz 2018 altus (L.), high; corpus (L.), body, referring to its relatively high body
Dysomma anguillare Barnard 1923 Latin for eel-like, referring to more elongate shape compared with D. bunocephalus
Dysomma brachygnathos Ho & Tighe 2018 brachýs (Gr. βραχύς), short; gnáthos (Gr. γνάθος), jaw, referring to its shorter lower jaw compared with congeners
Dysomma brevirostre (Facciolà 1887) brevis (L.), short; rostre, Neo-Latin scientific adjective (neuter) of rostrum (L.), snout, referring to its blunt, bulbous snout
Dysomma bucephalus Alcock 1889 bouképhalos– (Gr. βουκέφαλος), bull-headed, from boū́s (βοῦς) bull, and kephale (Gr. κεφαλή), head, metaphorically used to mean big, referring to “posteriorly deep and much inflated” head, its length (measured to gill opening) nearly ¼ TL
Dysomma bussarawiti Prokofiev 2019 in honor of marine biologist Somchai Bussarawit, Phuket Marine Biological Centre, Thailand, who made holotype available to Prokofiev
Dysomma dolichosomatum Karrer 1983 long-bodied, from dolichós (Gr. δολιχός), long, and somatum, from sōmatikós (Gr. σωματικός), bodily, referring to its more elongated body compared with D. polycatodon
Dysomma formosa Ho & Tighe 2018 named for Formosa, historical name of Taiwan, referring to type locality in South China Sea, off Dong-gang, southwestern Taiwan
Dysomma fuscoventralis Karrer & Klausewitz 1982 fuscus (L.), dusky, dark or swarthy; ventralis, genitive of venter (L.), belly, referring to dark coloration of abdominal area
Dysomma goslinei Robins & Robins 1976 in honor of the authors’ colleague, American ichthyologist William A. Gosline (1915–2002), University of Michigan
Dysomma intermedium Vo & Ho 2024 Latin for intermediate, referring to “intermediate status of the trunk length and many characters that are shared with other congeners”
Dysomma longirostrum Chen & Mok 2001 longus (L.), long; rostrum (L.), snout, referring to its “exceptionally long” snout (4.6% of total length)
Dysomma melanurum Chen & Weng 1967 black-tailed, from mélanos (Gr. μέλανος), genitive of mélas (μέλας), black, and ourá (Gr. οὐρά), tail, referring to its dark-brown caudal fin
Dysomma muciparus (Alcock 1891) muci-, from mucus (L.), secretion from the nose; –parus, from pario (L.), bring forth, denoting production, referring to skin “enveloped in thick, very tenacious mucus”
Dysomma opisthoproctus Chen & Mok 1995 opistho-, from ópisthen (Gr. ὄπισθεν), behind; prōktós (Gr. πρωκτός), anus, referring to posteriorly positioned anus (1.5 times head length behind pectoral-fin base)
Dysomma phuketense Prokofiev 2019 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: Andaman Sea off Phuket Island, Thailand, type locality [originally spelled phuketensis; emended to agree with neuter gender of Dysomma]
Dysomma polycatodon Karrer 1983 polý– (Gr. πολύ), many; cata, from katá (Gr. κατά), beneath, below or under; odon, Latinized and grammatically adjusted from the Greek nominative ὀδούς (odoús), tooth, referring to continuous series of 21–23 smaller teeth behind canines on lower jaw, longer and stronger than counterparts on upper jaw
Dysomma robinsorum Ho & Tighe 2018 –orum (L.), commemorative suffix, plural: in honor of Catherine H. and C. Richard Robins (1928–2020), for their “enormous” contribution to eel systematics
Dysomma taiwanense Ho, Smith & Tighe 2015 –ense, Latin suffix denoting place: off Taiwan, type locality
Dysomma tridens Robins, Böhlke & Robins 1989 Latin for a fork with three tines, referring to three premaxillary teeth, shaped like an inverted V or isosceles triangle, which project below tip of fleshy snout
Dysommina Ginsburg 1951 diminutive of Dysomma, presumably alluding to the similarity between the two genera
Dysommina brevis Vo & Ho 2024 Latin for short, referring to its relatively short trunk compared with D. orientalis and D. rugosa
Dysommina orientalis Tighe, Ho & Hatooka 2018 Latin for eastern, referring to type locality in the Far East off Taiwan and Japan
Dysommina proboscideus (Lea 1913) Latin for having a proboscis, referring to snout produced into a long filament (known only from a leptocephalus)
Dysommina rugosa Ginsburg 1951 Latin for wrinkled or shriveled, referring to its fleshy, papillose snout
Ilyophis Gilbert 1891 ilýs (Gr. ἰλύς ), mud, presumably referring to soft or silty bottom habitat of I. brunneus; ophis (Gr.), serpent, referring to the snake-like shape of an eel
Ilyophis arx Robins 1976 Latin for castle, named for ichthyologist Peter H. J. Castle (1934–1999), Victoria University (Wellington, New Zealand), who “laid the foundations of modern work on synaphobranchid eels”
Ilyophis blachei Saldanha & Merrett 1982 in honor of French ichthyologist and “good friend” Jacques Blache (1922–1994), for his valuable contributions to anguilliform taxonomy
Ilyophis brunneus Gilbert 1891 Medieval Latin for brown, referring to its body coloration
Ilyophis maclainei Tighe, Smith & Merrett 2024 in honor of colleague James Maclaine, Senior Curator of Fishes, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom, for his “dedication to the collections under his care and especially his hard work in incorporating the collections of the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences/National Oceanography Centre into the Natural History Museum, United Kingdom
Ilyophis nigeli Shcherbachev & Sulak 1997 in honor of British ichthyologist Nigel R. Merrett (b. 1940), for his “substantial contributions” to the knowledge of Ilyophis and other synaphobranchid eels
Ilyophis robinsae Sulak & Shcherbachev 1997 in honor of ichthyologist and sculptor Catherine H. Robins (wife of ichthyologist C. Richard Robins), for her “substantial contributions” to the knowledge of synaphobranchid eels
Ilyophis saldanhai Karmovskaya & Parin 1999 in honor of the late Luiz Saldanha (1937–1997), Portuguese ichthyologist and friend, for “substantial” (translation) contributions to anguilliform studies
Ilyophis singularis Tashiro & Chen 2022 Latin for unique, referring to its “singularly unique” characteristics (e.g., “remarkably” low number of vertebrae, 116–118 in total)
Linkenchelys Smith 1989 Link, named for the Johnson-Sea Link submersible, which collected type specimens; énchelys (Gr. ἔγχελυς), eel
Linkenchelys multipora Smith 1989 multus (L.), many; pora, from póros (Gr. πόρος), pore, referring to relatively numerous lateral-line pores
Meadia Böhlke 1951 –ia (L. suffix), pertaining to: patronym not identified but almost certainly in honor of Böhlke’s frequent collaborator and Stanford University colleague, Giles W. Mead (1928–2003)
Meadia abyssalis (Kamohara 1938) Latin for of the deep sea, presumably referring to its benthopelagic (100–329 m) habitat [note: abyssal usually refers to water deeper than 4000 m, but this eel apparently does not occur that deep]
Meadia minor Vo & Ho 2021 Latin for rather small, referring to its small adult body size (reaching 330 mm TL) compared with congeners, as well as most members of Ilyophinae
Meadia roseni Mok, Lee & Chan 1991 in honor of the late Donn Eric Rosen (1929–1986), American Museum of Natural History, for his “tremendous contribution” to fish systematics
Thermobiotes Geistdoerfer 1991 thermós (Gr. θερμός), hot; biotḗ (Gr. βιοτή), means of living, referring to its living at a deep-sea hydrothermal vent
Thermobiotes mytilogeiton Geistdoerfer 1991 mýtilos (Gr. μύτιλος), hornless (said of a goat), but used by zoologists to refer to sea mussels; geítōn (Gr. γείτων), neighbor, referring to its living among sea snails (Alviniconcha)
Cutthroat Eels
Subfamily SYNAPHOBRANCHINAE Johnson 1862
Diastobranchus Barnard 1923 diastolḗ (Gr.διαστολή), a splitting or division; branchos (Gr.), gill, referring to separated gill openings (unlike united gill openings of Synaphobranchus)
Diastobranchus capensis Barnard 1923 –ensis, Latin suffix denoting place: the cape (Cape Point, South Africa), type locality
Haptenchelys Robins & Martin 1976 haptō (Gr. ἅπτω), to join or fasten, referring to its status as a link between nominal families (now subfamilies) Dysomminae (=Ilyophinae) and Synaphobranchinae; énchelys (Gr. ἔγχελυς), eel
Haptenchelys parviocularis Tashiro & Shinohara 2014 parvus (L.), little; ocularis (L.), of the eye, referring to eyes much smaller than gill-slit aperture
Haptenchelys texis Robins & Martin 1976 tḗxis (Gr. τῆξις), wasting away or dissolution, referring to dissolution of artificial boundaries between what was once regarded as two families (see genus)
Histiobranchus Gill 1883 histíon (Gr. ἱστίον), sail (i.e., dorsal fin); branchus, from bránchia (Gr. βράγχια), gills, referring to anterior insertion of dorsal fin, commencing above or immediately behind pectoral fins
Histiobranchus australis (Regan 1913) Latin for southern, referring to its occurrence in the Southern Hemisphere
Histiobranchus bathybius (Günther 1877) bathýs (Gr. βαθύς), deep; bíos (Gr. βίος), life, referring to its deep-sea habitat
Histiobranchus bruuni Castle 1964 in honor of Danish oceanographer and ichthyologist Anton Frederick Bruun (1901–1961), whose 1937 work “forms an invaluable basis of our knowledge of the family Synaphobranchidae and whose interest in this study was interrupted by his untimely death”
Synaphobranchus Johnson 1862 synaptós (Gr. συναπτός), joined together or united; branchus, from bránchia (Gr. βράγχια), gills, referring to gill openings of S. kaupii externally united into a single slit
Synaphobranchus affinis Günther 1877 Latin for related, referring to similarity to S. brevidorsalis
Synaphobranchus brevidorsalis Günther 1887 brevis (L.), short; dorsalis (L.), of the back, presumably referring to how dorsal fin commences so far behind vent that distance between its origin and vent equals length of head
Synaphobranchus calvus Melo 2007 Latin for bald, referring to absence of scales on head
Synaphobranchus dolichorhynchus Lea 1913 long-snouted, from dolichós (Gr. δολιχός), long, and rhýnchos (Gr. ῥύγχος), snout, referring to snout of leptocephalus, the point of which is “elongated into a proboscis”
Synaphobranchus kaupii Johnson 1862 in honor of German naturalist Johann Jacob Kaup (1803–1873), “who has well studied this order of fishes” (Kaup wrote first major treatise on eels in 1856)
Synaphobranchus oligolepis Ho, Hong & Chen 2018 olígos (Gr. ὀλίγος), few or scanty; lepίs (Gr. λεπίς), scale, referring to most parts of head and abdomen naked, except for scaled patch on cheek behind eyes
Synaphobranchus oregoni Castle 1960 in honor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service research vessel Oregon, from which holotype was collected