Eulophiidae

Eulophiidae was first proposed as a family in 2013 by the Korean biologists Hyuck Joon Kwun and Jin-Koo Kim for the genus Eulophias, which had previously been classified as belonging to the family Stichaeidae. Kwun and Kim argued that the molecular phylogenetics showed that Eulophias was only distantly related to the species classified within the Stichaeidae.{{cite journal |author1=Hyuck Joon Kwun |author2=Jin-Koo Kim |year=2003 |title=Molecular phylogeny and new classification of the genera Eulophias and Zoarchias (PISCES, Zoarcoidei) |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=69 |issue=3 |pages=787–795|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2013.06.025}} This was suuported by further molecular phylogenetic analyses published in 2014.{{cite journal | author1 = Radchenko, Olga | author2 = Chereshnev, Igor | author3 = Petrovskaya, Anna | author4 = Balanov, A. | author5 = Turanov, Sergei | name-list-style = and |year = 2014 | title = Position of the Genus Azygopterus (Stichaeidae, Perciformes) in the System of the Suborder Zoarcoidei as Inferred from Sequence Variation of Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genes | journal = Russian Journal of Genetics | volume = 50 | issue = 3 | pages = 280–287 | doi = 10.1134/S1022795414030065}} and the validity of the family has been accepted by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World,{{cite book |title=Fishes of the World |edition=5th |author1=J. S. Nelson |author2=T. C. Grande |author3=M. V. H. Wilson |year=2016 |pages=467–495 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-34233-6 |url=https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ |access-date=2022-08-05 |archive-date=2019-04-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190408194051/https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ |url-status=dead }} by FishBase and by the Catalog of Fishes. The type species of the family, Eulophias tanneri, was described from Japan by Hugh McCormick Smith in 1902, Smith thought that his new species was a blenny but was different enough from other blennies that he proposed a new subfamily, Eulophiasinae, as a monotypic subfamily of the Blennidae,{{cite journal | author = Smith, H. M. | year = 1902 | title = Description of a new species of blenny from Japan | journal = Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission | volume = 21 | pages = 93–94 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/52026795#page/149/mode/1up}} Jordan and Snyder changed the name to Eulophinae in 1902.{{cite journal | author1 = David Starr Jordan | author2 = John Otterbein Snyder | name-list-style = and | year = 1902 | title = A review of the blennoid fishes of Japan | journal = Proceedings of the United States National Museum | volume = 25 | issue = 1293 | pages = 441–504 | url = https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/7532967#page/473/mode/1up}} The genera Eulophias and Azygopterus were subsequently placed in the subfamily Neozarchinae in the tribe Eulophini prior to Kwun and Kim's analysis.{{cite journal | author1 = Mecklenburg, C. W. | author2 = B. A. Sheiko | name-list-style = and | year = 2004 | title = Family Stichaeidae Gill 1864 — pricklebacks | journal = California Academy of Sciences Annotated Checklists of Fishes | volume = 35 | url = https://www.calacademy.org/sites/default/files/assets/docs/stichaeidae.pdf}}

The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this family within the suborder Zoarcoidei, within the order Scorpaeniformes. Other authorities classify this family in the infraorder Zoarcales within the suborder Cottoidei of the Perciformes because removing the Scorpaeniformes from the Perciformes renders that taxon non monophyletic.{{cite journal | author1 = Ricardo Betancur-R | author2 = Edward O. Wiley | author3 = Gloria Arratia | author4 = Arturo Acero | author5 = Nicolas Bailly | author6 = Masaki Miya | author7 = Guillaume Lecointre | author8 = Guillermo Ortí | display-authors = 3 | title =Phylogenetic classification of bony fishes | journal = BMC Evolutionary Biology | volume = 17 | issue = 162 | year = 2017 | page = 162 | doi = 10.1186/s12862-017-0958-3 | pmid = 28683774 | pmc = 5501477 | doi-access = free }}

Eulophiidae contains the following 3 genera, and only 4 or 5 species are classified as belonging to the family:{{FishBase family|family=Eulophiidae|month=February|year=2022}}{{Cof family|family=Eulophiidae|access-date=5 August 2022}}

{{Linked genus list

| Azygopterus | Andriashev & Makushok, 1955

| Eulophias | H. M. Smith, 1902

| Leptostichaeus | Miki, 1985

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The family name is based on the name Smith gave to Eulophias tanneri in 1902 and is a combination of eu, meaning "well", and lophias, which means "bristley backed", a reference to the long, spiny dorsal fin of that species.{{cite web | url = http://etyfish.org/perciformes15/ | title = Order Perciformes (Part 11): Suborder Cottoidea: Infraorder Zoarcales: Families: Anarhichadidae, Neozoarcidae, Eulophias, Stichaeidae, Lumpenidae, Ophistocentridae, Pholidae, Ptilichthyidae, Zaproridae, Cryptacanthodidae, Cebidichthyidae, Scytalinidae and Bathymasteridae | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1= Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp |date = 4 July 2021 | access-date = 6 August 2022 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}

Eulophiidae fishes are characterised by having an almost completely spiny dorsal fin, the pectoral fins may be absent or have at most 7 rays, there are no teeth on the vomerine or on the palatine teeth, they have 6 branchiostegal rays, there is no pyloric caeca, they have between 26 and 45 vertebrae in front of the tail and the parietals do not meet at the midline of the skull.

Eulophidae fishes are found in the North Western Pacific Ocean off Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East.

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Category:Perciformes families