The snailfish genus Allecareproctus has been revised and four new species have been described from the Aleutian islands.
James Orr and Morgan Busby of the Alaska Fisheries Science
Center in Seattle published their revision of the liparid fish family in the latest issue of the journal Zootaxa.
Their study includes the description of four new species: Allocareproctus tanix, A. kallaion, A. unangas and A. ungak. The only other member of the genus is A. jordani, which was described by Burke in 1930 as Careproctus jordani.
The naked-skinned, pinky-red fishes all live in deep cold water at depths of 75-495m/246-1624 feet.
Like other members of the Liparidae family, they have specialised pelvic fins which form a sucking disc to allow them to anchor themselves to the bottom.
For more details on the snailfishes see the paper: Orr, J and M Busby (2006) - Revision of the snailfish genus Allocareproctus Pitruk and Fedorov (Teleostei: Liparidae), with descriptions of four new species from
the Aleutian Islands. Zootaxa 1173: 1-37 (2006).