''Lycodes'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of zoarcid fish in the subfamily

Lycodinae Lycodinae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Zoarcidae, the eelpouts. These eelpouts are found are in all the world's oceans, with a number of species being found off southern South America. Taxonomy Lycodinae was ...

. It is the most species-rich genus in its

taxonomic family Family ( la, familia, plural ') is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between order and genus. A family may be divided into subfamilies, which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of fa ...

as well as in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

and adjacent waters. They occupy both shallow waters and deeper waters down to 3000 meters. A few species can occur in brackish waters.

Taxonomy

''Lycodes'' was first proposed as a

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

in 1831 by the Danish

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

Johan Reinhard Johan Reinhard (born December 13, 1943) is an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society. He is also a senior research fellow at The Mountain Institute, a visiting professor at Catholic University, Salta, Argentina, an honorary p ...

when he described ''Lycodes vahlii'', which he described from off Greenland. The genus is classified in the subfamily

, one of four subfamilies in the family Zoarcidae, the eelpouts. Four species, ''L. albonotata'', ''L. teraoi'', ''L. toyamensis'' and ''L. toyamesnsis'' are classified within the genus ''

Petroschmidtia ''Petroschmidtia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Zoarcidae, the eelpouts. The species in this genus are placed in the genus ''Lycodes'' by ''FishBase'' but ''Catalog of Fishes'' recognises this as a valid genus. ...

'' by some authorities.

Etymology

''Lycodes'' means "having the form of a

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

", being a combination of ''lykos'' meaning "wolf" and ''oides'' meaning "similar to". Reinhardt though the teeth were similar to those of ''

Anarhichas lupus Lupus, technically known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Commo ...

'' and thought that the two taxa were closely related.

Species

Currently, 64 species are placed in this genus, divided into two subgenera:

Description

The genus is characterized by one

autapomorphy In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to t ...

: submental crests, the more or less pronounced cartilage extensions on the lower jaws. Within the genus, one clade has been identified, the "short-tailed" ''Lycodes'' that are associated with shallower depths (0–1200 m) than the long-tailed species (3–3000 m). Short tail might represent an adaptation to shallow, Arctic waters; the clade includes many Arctic

endemics Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

. In contrast, the long-tailed species do not form a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic ...

group. Coloration of all short-tailed ''Lycodes'' includes some sorts of stripes, marks, or reticulations, while the long-tailed species are uniformly brownish, striped, or spotted.

Ecology

''Lycodes'' are bottom-dwelling fish with a relatively stationary life style. The eggs are benthic, few in number (<2000) and large in size (as large as ).

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1879562 Lycodinae Perciformes genera Marine fish genera Taxa named by Johan Reinhardt