Lycenchelys is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Zoarcidae, the eelpouts. The genus has almost cosmopolitan distribution.[1]
Lycenelchys was first proposed as a genus in 1884 by the American ichthyologist Theodore Gill with Lycodes muraena being designated as the type species in 1920 by David Starr Jordan,[2] this species was originally described by the Norwegian zoologist Robert Collett in 1878 with its type locality given as west-southwest of Bodø in Norway, at a depth of . The genus is classified in the subfamily Lycodinae, one of four subfamilies in the family Zoarcidae, the eelpouts.[3]
Lycenchelys contains the following species:
Lycenchelys is a combination of lyc, a reference to the genus Lycodes and enchelys, the Greek word for "eel". i.e. similar to Lycodes but with a more elongated eel-like shape.[4]
Lycenelchys are regarded as derived Lycodine eelpouts which are separated from other Lycodine genera by a number of oseological characters.[2] They can be diagnosed by having between 6 and 10 suborbital bones and a cephalic sensory canal with between 6 and 10 pores. The pterygiophore of the first dorsal fin ray is associated with the second to the 21st vertebrae and there can be up to 16 free pterygiophores, or there may be none. There is a weak series of palatopterygoids, a weak oral valve and pseudobranch. They may or may not have pelvic fins, vomerine teeth and palatine teeth. Scales, the pyloric caeca and lateral line or lines are all present.[5] The species with the greatest published length is Lycenchelys albomaculata, with a standard length of, while the lowest published length is that of Lycenchelys peruana with a maximum total length of .
Lycenchelys is a cosmopolitan genus with species in all oceans, they are found in continental slope and abyssal habitats. They are rare or absent from the far northern Arctic, the eastern Atlantic and the tropical Indian Oceans.[5]