ABSTRACT
Members of the subfamily Bathylaginae are somewhat small, often laterally compressed fishes. Some species have rather deep, robust bodies, with deep caudal peduncles, while others have strongly elongate bodies tapering to a narrow caudal peduncle. The dorsal fin is placed at about midbody; the pectoral fin origin is at the posterior third of the body; the anal fin is placed close to the ventral surface; the anal fin is inserted under or slightly behind the dorsal fin. A dorsal adipose fin is present in all Atlantic species. Specimens range in size from under 25 mm at transformation to over 200 mm SL as adults. Adults exhibit two general types of coloration: light skin, usually with considerable amounts of silvery pigment on the body and head; or deeply pigmented, with large scale pockets. They are placed in the Osmeriformes and the suborder Agentinoidei (Ahlstrom et al. 1984, Nelson 1994). Kobyliansky (1990) and Johnson & Patterson (1997) propose that the Bathylagidae and Microstomatidae should be combined as subfamilies in the Microstomatidae as opposed to separate familes proposed by Begle (1992) and followed by many.
