Loyalty Deepwater Cardinalfish

This species is distinguished by the following set of characters: no opercular spine; ribs present on the last abdominal vertebra; absence of tooth on tongue, maxillary mustache-like process and tubercle on inner symphysis of lower jaw; elliptical eye; total gill rakers 24-25; vertebrae 10 + 15; pored lateral-line scales 48-49 + 3-4; D VII-I,10; pectoral-fin rays 18-19; pyloric caeca 10-13; body depth 17.0-17.1 % SL; posterior half of oral cavity and tongue black (Ref. 93890).

The male holotype has a fully ripe testis and the female paratype with a great number of eggs in several developmental stages. The most developed eggs were ca. 0.4 mm in diameter, round with a single oil globule (Ref. 93890).

Dorsal spines (total): 8; Dorsal soft rays (total): 10; Analspines: 2; Analsoft rays: 9; Vertebrae: 25