Genus Gadomus Regan, 1903

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES.— Chin barbel present, usually thick and long. V rays usually 8, rarely 9. Second spinous ray of 1D, upper ray of P, and outermost ray of V usually elongated, in some species extremely long; outer V ray usually rather thick.

REMARKS.— The genus was revised by Howes and Crimmen (1990), who based their work mostly on the literature and old, previously recorded specimens (none recently collected). With respect to Gadomus aoteanus, they followed McCann and McKnight (1980), who gave an erroneous count of V 9, but examination of the holotype and many other specimens (by TI) of that species showed that there are consistently eight rays in each fin. Gilbert (1905:658) gave a count of V 9 for the holotype (and only type specimen) of G. melanopterus; this is the only record of nine rays in a specimen of Gadomus that we are aware of. A second non-type specimen (CAS-SU 8545) that he reported in the original description has V 8.

Seven of the 12 described species of Gadomus are found in the western Pacific, but there may be others that are new to science. The species from the Indo-Pacific region have, for the most part, been inadequately circumscribed owing to the lack of large series from many localities. A thorough review of the genus using more recently collected material and genetic analyses is badly needed.