''Stylophthalmus'' (meaning 'stem-eye') was a name used for what was previously believed to be a genus of fish with eyes perched upon periscopic stalks, known in some cases to be almost one third of the length of the animal's actual body. It is now recognised that all species in this genus are the

fish larvae Ichthyoplankton (from Greek: wikt:ἰχθύς, ἰχθύς, , "fish"; and πλαγκτός, , "drifter") are the Fish eggs, eggs and larvae of fish. They are mostly found in the sunlit zone of the water column, less than 200 metres deep, which ...

of already named, distantly related fish in the orders

Stomiiformes Stomiiformes is an order (biology), order of deep-sea ray-finned fishes of very diverse Morphology (biology), morphology. It includes, for example, Barbeled dragonfish, dragonfishes, lightfishes (Gonostomatidae and Phosichthyidae), loosejaws, ma ...

and

Myctophiformes The Myctophiformes are an order of ray-finned fishes consisting of two families of deep-sea marine fish, most notably the highly abundant lanternfishes (Myctophidae). The blackchins (Neoscopelidae) contain six species in three genera, whi ...

which may have developed this same trait as a result of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last comm ...

. Thus, ''Stylophthalmus'' is an invalid name.

Species

* ''Stylophthalmus lobiancoi'', Mazzarelli, 1909, now recognised as a junior synonym of ''

Myctophum punctatum ''Myctophum punctatum'' is a species of mesopelagic fish in the family Myctophidae. Its common name is spotted lanternfish, sometimes spelled spotted lanterfish. It is found in the Northern Atlantic and in the Mediterranean at depths down to 1 ...

'', Rafinesque, 1810 * ''Stylophthalmus mediterraneus'', Mazzarelli, 1810, now recognised as a junior synonym of '' Symbolophorus veranyi'', Moreau, 1888 *''Stylophthalmus paradoxus'', Brauer, 1902, now recognised as a junior synonym of '' Idiacanthus fasciola'', Peters, 1877WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Stylophthalmus paradoxus Brauer, 1902
/ref>

References

{{Reflist Marine fish Obsolete vertebrate taxa