Family Melamphaidae. Genus Melamphaes. Multi-Raker Species

A diagnosis of the family Melamphaidae and a key for identifying its five genera (Melamphaes, Poromitra, Scopeloberyx, Scopelogadus, Sio) have been given. A diagnosis of the genus Melamphaes has been presented, the species of which are divided into multi-raker (20–24 rakers on the 1st gill arch) and oligo-raker (less than 19 rakers). Multi-raker species are divided into four groups (M. lugubris, M. polylepis, M. suborbitalis, M. ebelingi). A key has been compiled for the identification of all 16 multi-raker species of this genus. For each species, a detailed description has been provided, including synonyms and bibliography, diagnosis, description, comments, distribution, biology (if such data is available), information about the material studied.