First record of the warty oreo, Allocyttus verrucosus(Gilchrist, 1906), in Greenland waters

Fishes of the zeiform family Oreosomatidae, containing 10 valid species in four genera, chiefly occur in the deeper (500–1000 m) temperate slope waters of the southern hemisphere. While most oreosomatid fish are only rarely observed north of the equator (Tokranov et al., 2004; Ditty, 2006), Allocyttus folletti Myers, 1960 is only reported to occur in the North Pacific (Karrer, 1990; Mecklenburg et al., 2002). For the North Atlantic, occurrences of oreosomatid fish are chiefly reported for temperate to subtropical waters (Karrer et al., 1986; Ditty, 2006) but sporadic occurrences further north have also been reported for Allocyttus verrucosus (Gilchrist, 1906) west of Scotland (Du Buit and Quero, 1993; Quero et al., 1997) and Pseudocyttus maculatus Gilchrist, 1906 in Icelandic waters (Post and Jonsson, 1996). The recent issue of "Islenskir Fiskar" (Jonsson and Palsson, 2006) lists A. verrucosus, P. maculatus and Neocyttus helgae (Holt and Byrne, 1908) for Icelandic waters, thus indicating that oreosomatid fish may occur more regularly in northern North Atlantic waters than previously anticipated. This paper describes the first record of A. verrucosus in Greenland waters and compares its measurements and meristics with other specimens of A. verrucosus and A. folletti allowing for absolutely certain identification. A detailed comparison of the new specimen with specimens of A. folletti was necessary, since A. verrucosus and A. folletti are difficult to distinguish. In the North Pacific, this was probably the reason for reports of A. verrucosus from that area by, e.g. Abe and Hotta (1962) and Kobayashi et al. (1968). Later, Karrer (1990), Gillespie (1993) and Mecklenburg (2002) noted that records of A. verrucosus from the North Pacific all belong to A. folletti.