Review Of Prickled Eelpouts Of Genus Krusensterniella (Zoarcidae) Describing Three New Species From The Far-Eastern Seas

The revision of the prickled eelpout g. Krusensterniella , resulted in description of three new species from the Far-Eastern seas. The genus now includes seven species. For Notable prickled eelpout K. notabilis , the data of the type series have been specified, and the lectotype has been identified (ZIN no. 13011); the range includes the Sea of Okhotsk (from Sakhalin to Northwestern Kamchatka), the Kuril Islands (Simushir and Ushishir) and the Tatar Strait of the Sea of Japan. Maculate prickled eelpout K. maculata (the holotype was not preserved; paratypes ZIN no. 29989) is reliably known along the continental part of the Sea of Japan from the Tatar Strait to Peter the Great Bay (at depths of 53–150 m). Scaly prickled eelpout K. squamosa sp. nov., similar in number of spiny rays (=pungent spines) in the dorsal fin (II) to K. notabilis (I–IV), is described from the Pacific waters of Honshu Island (depth 194 m; holotype ZIN no. 48390). Kuril prickled eelpout K. kurilensis sp. nov. and Triksy prickled eelpout K. pseudomaculata sp. nov. similar in number of pungent spines to K. maculata (X, VI–XI, and VII–VIII, respectively), but differ in the number of vertebrae and total number of pungent spines in the dorsal fin, as well as in the arrangement of spiny rays and the degree of scale development. A specimen of K. kurilensis (holotype ZIN no. 51575) was caught from the Pacific side of the southern Kuril Islands (depth 142 m). K. pseudomaculata sp. nov. found in the Sea of Japan (holotype ZIN no. 40166) and in the Sea of Okhotsk from Sakhalin to Shelikhov Bay (at depths of 25–164 m). A key is provided to identify all species of the genus, including the previously re-examined Multispined prickled eelpout K. multispinosa and Pavlovski prickled eelpout K. pavlovskii (with the number of spiny rays XV–XX and XXIII–XXVI).