3 from Chile (420.5-565.0 mm SL), FAKU CP 978-980.
Description:
D 39-43 (total element); A 25-28 (total element); P1 16-17; P2T, 5; GR 6-7+11=17-18.
HL 19.4-20.9% of SL; ED 1.9-2.2; BD 35.0-37.7; SN 4.1-4.8; IO 5.2-5.8; UJ 4.6-4.9; CP 9.2-10.3; P1L 10.0-11.5; P2L 2.7-3.2; DH 5.6-7.0; AH 5.1-6.3.
Body deep and extremely compressed, body depth 2.7-2.9 times in SL. Head small, its length 4.8-5.2 times in SL. Snout blunt, short, weak, often damaged by trawling catch. Mouth terminal and small, posterior margin of upper jaw reaching anterior margin of eye. Small villiform teeth on both jaws. No teeth on vomer or palatines. Six to seven large lipped pores on each side of head, above eye and gill-cover. Eye small, about 10 times in HL. About 20 small sensory pores around eye. Gill-rakers soft, short with inner serrations. Pseudobranchiae well developed. Interorbital region wide, its width about 3 times of eye diameter. A shallow longitudinal groove from interorbital region toward dorsal fin origin. Belly fairly convex, with a fleshy keel between pelvic fin and anus. Pectoral fin round and short, its length about half of head. Pelvic fin very small with flesy peduncle situated slightly posterior to level of posterior insertion of pectoral fin. Dorsal and anal fins low with scaled fleshy sheath. Dorsal fin base longer than anal fin base. Caudal fin weakly forked with deep caudal peduncle, caudal peduncle depth nearly equal to or slightly shorter than pectoral fin. Small deciduous cycloid scales covering head and body. Lateral line obscure, running parallel to dorsal profile. Body uniformly dark brownish, tip of each fin and gill-membrane tinged with black.
Distribution:
Chilean Patagonia and New Zealand.
Remarks:
Icichthys, a menber of the most primitive group of stromateoids, has a very high number of vertebrae, an advanced condition; the number, between 50 and 60, is slightly more than twice the basic perciform number, 25, found in other centrolophids (Headrich, 1967).