Parabembras Bleeker, 1874

Kai, Yoshiaki & Fricke, Ronald, 2018, Taxonomic review of the deep water flathead genus Parabembras with description of the new species Parabembrasmultisquamata from the western Pacific Ocean (Teleostei, Parabembridae), ZooKeys 740, pp. 59-76 : 59

Genus Parabembras Bleeker, 1874

Parabembras Bleeker, 1874: 370; Jordan and Richardson 1908: 644; Weber and de Beaufort 1911: 288; Jordan and Hubbs 1925: 281 (in family Parabembradidae ); Barnard 1927: 936; Chu and Yin 1963: 478; Washington et al. 1984: 441; Knapp 1986: 481; Imamura 1996: 194 (in the monotypic family Parabembridae ).

Type species.

Bembras curtus Temminck and Schlegel, 1843 by monotypy.

Diagnosis.

Body cylindrical, head somewhat depressed. Dorsal surface of head with spines only, tubercles absent. Ctenoid scales covering nape, postorbital, cheek, and opercular regions. Lower jaw projecting beyond upper jaw; dermal flap on posterior margin of maxillary. Two dorsal fins; first dorsal fin with 9 (rarely 8) to 11 spines; second dorsal fin with one spine and 8 or 9 soft rays. Anal fin with three robust spines and 5 soft rays. Pectoral fin without free rays. Pelvic fin with one spine and 5 soft rays, inserted below base of pectoral fin. Pored lateral line scales 34-44.

Remarks.

Imamura (1996) diagnosed the then monotypic family Parabembridae on the basis of dissection of a single species, Parabembras curtus . Because of the rarity of the other species, we could not confirm the status of internal diagnostic characters given by Imamura (1996). Although Nelson et al. (2016) placed Parabembras under family Bembridae with Bembradium Gilbert, 1905: the former is clearly distinguishable from the latter in having three anal-fin spines (vs. anal-fin spines absent). In the phylogenetic analysis, Imamura (2004) recovered a sister relationship between Bembradium and Plectrogenium Gilbert, 1905, forming the family Plectrogeniidae .