Type genus, Trochopus Diesing, 1850. 



Into the composition of the subfamily enter also Benedenia 

 Diesing, 1858 and Pseudobenedenia Johnston, 1931. 



The structure of the attaching disc according to the second of 

 the types indicated above is characteristic for the subfannily. At first 

 glance our inclusion of the genera Benedenia and Pseudobenedenia into its 

 composition appears unwarranted. Earlier both named genera were 

 attributed to the subfamily Benedeniinae Johnston, 1931 which was sup- 

 pressed by us. Reasons which prompted us to include both genera under 

 discussion into the circle of Trochopodinae lie in the fact that the basic 

 characteristic of Benedeniinae --the absence of septa and of the corres- 

 ponding depressions of the disc --is inconsequential in connection with these 

 genera. Thus, the genus Pseudobenedenia established by Johnston was de- 

 scribed rather briefly by him in his work in 1931, but described very much 

 in detail in his little known but solid work in 1937 (the last work was not 

 nnentioned by Price or Sproston and is not quoted in their re'sumes). Even in 

 the first work it is said, concerning the structure of the disc, that it "bears 

 6 light crests probably homologous to the anterolateral, posterior and 

 posterolateral septa of Capsala, the posterior lies between the second and 

 third pairs of hooks, the posterolateral ones curve sideways posteriorly 

 from the anterior pair and the anterolateral septa extend anteriorly and ' 



outside from the place of the junction of the disc with the body. These 

 crests are deprived of musculature and do not lead to the development of ' 



well-expressed depressions. " In the second work these data are repeated ^ 



and are also substantiated by material based on sections through the disc I 



(Johnston, 1937, Fig. 7). Thus, for Pseudobenedenia it is not the absence ; 



of septa that is characteristic but their weak expression, which is noted by D. 379 

 Sproston (Sproston, 1946) in her re'sume, although, nevertheless she does > 



not make any conclusions from this. 



As regards Benedenia , our research on certain species from 

 the Far East shows che presence of more or less well-developed, often 

 quite muscular septa among representatives of this genus. Thus, B. 

 derzhavini (Layman) has fully developed muscular septa located just as 

 among Pseudobenedenia . The same occurs among B. sebastodes (Yamaguti), 

 B. ovata (Goto), etc. It is interesting that from the specimen from 

 Sebastes melanops Girard which was obtained in 1835 on the Island of 

 Vrangel and which is located in the collections of the Zoological Institute 

 of the Academy of Sciences SSSR we removed from the interior surface of 

 the operculum one specimen of an as yet undetermined species of Benedenia 

 with excellently expressed septa and depressions between them. On the 

 body of the fish was seen the imprint of all 7 depressions (one central and 

 six peripheral) in spite of the 120 year period since the moment of fixation! 

 In preparing a slide of the specimen (stained with alumcarnnine and mounted 



452 



i 



