Family ARTEDIDRACONIDAE

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Introduction

The Artedidraconidae comprise four genera and about 35 species of small to medium-sized benthic fishes restricted primarily to the Antarctic continental shelf, with one species recorded from South Georgia (Eastman & Eakin 2015). They feed on macroinvertebrates and reach a size of about 10-35 cm (Eakin 1990). Four genera and 21 species have been recorded in Australian territorial waters. The family is closely related to the Harpagiferidae.

Most species (at least 27) are in the genus Pogonophryne, a taxonomically complex group with little meristic separation between species. Eakin et al. (2009) described a new species of Pogonphryne and conducted a molecular phylogenetic analysis on the genus, demonstrating the presence of five distinct species groups. Around 10 Pogonphryne species have been described in the last 10 years, and in a brief review of the genus, Shandikov (2012) listed seven formally undescribed species. No other recent revisions of the family have been conducted.

General References

Eakin, R.R. 1990. Artedidraconidae. pp. 332-356 in Gon, O. & Heemstra, P.C. (eds). Fishes of the Southern Ocean. Grahamstown : J.L.B. Smith Institute of Ichthyology 462 pp.

Eakin, R.R., Eastman, J.T. & Near, T.J. 2009. A new species and a molecular phylogenetic analysis of the Antarctic fish genus Pogonophryne (Notothenioidei: Artedidraconidae). Copeia (4): 705-713 [Date published 29 Dec]

Eastman, J.T. & Eakin, R.R. 2015. Notothenioid classification and list of species. Ohio University - Faculty of Biomedical Science. http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-eastman/Articles/Noto-valid-spp-list15Jan2015.docx [published 15 Jan 2015; accessed on 12 June 2015] [4-5]

Shandikov, G.A. 2012. Brief review of Antarctic tadpole plunderfishes of the genus Pogonophryne (Perciformes: Notothenioidei: Artedidraconidae). The Journal of V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University. Series: biology 16(1035): 125-143 [in Russian, English summary]

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