Species: Symphurus billykrietei, Chocolatebanded Tonguefish

Symphurus billykrietei Munroe, 1998

Chocolatebanded Tonguefish

Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail; body relatively deep; snout bluntly rounded; eyes small, longer than wide, with very small space between them; no cover over pupil; mouth small, arched (strongly on blind side), at front or a little under snout; eye-side lower jaw without fleshy crest; both eye-side jaws with 1 row of slender teeth, top jaw sometimes with teeth only along front ¾ of jaw; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal fin 89-95 rays; anal 76-84 rays; pectoral fins absent, represented by a fine membrane; only left pelvic fin present, 4 rays, on body midline, joined to anal fin by delicate membrane; dorsal and anal fins confluent with the pointed caudal fin; tail fin 12 rays; scales rough, on both sides; rays of dorsal and anal without scales on blind-side; 80-100 lateral scales; no lateral line.

Top side pale brown, 5-8 irregular dark crossbars, those on rear body usually incomplete; dorsal and anal pale at front, rear part with continuous narrow dark stripe along base of rays and membranes; tail fin with irregular-shaped spot on fin base, rest of fin unpigmented; blind side uniformly yellowish (no dark dots); lining of gut cavity black.

Size: 12.5 cm.

Habitat: mud bottoms.

Depth: 48-650 m, usually 200-380 m.

N Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico.