Philypnodon Bleeker

Hoese, Douglass F. & Reader, Sally, 2006, Description of a new species of dwarf Philypnodon (Teleostei: Gobioidei: Eleotridae) from south-eastern Australia, Memoirs of Museum Victoria 63 (1), pp. 15-19 : 16

Philypnodon Bleeker

Philypnodon Bleeker, 1874: 301 , (type species: Eleotris nudiceps Castelnau, 1872 , by original designation), Syntypes MNHN 1509.

Gymnobutis Bleeker, 1874: 304 (type species: Eleotris gymnocephalus Steindachner, 1866 , by original designation and monotypy), Syntypes NMW 22519

Ophiorrhinus, Ogilby,1897:745 (type species: Eleotris grandiceps Krefft, 1864 , by original designation) Syntypes BMNH 1864.7.22.40- 44; AMS I.2671 -2672.

The genus is distinctive in the following combination of characters: no head pores; no scales on cheek or operculum; nape naked to fully scaled; body fully scaled, largely with ctenoid scales; midline of belly sometimes without scales; anterior nostril at end of short tube above and almost in contact with middle of upper lip, posterior nostril with raised rim slightly in front of anterior margin of eye; usually seven dorsal spines; first dorsal-fin origin well posterior to pectoral-fin insertion; pelvic-fin origin well posterior to pectoral-fin insertion to almost below pectoral-fin origin; transverse papilla pattern; large mouth, longer in males than females; bulbous cheeks in adults; wide gill opening extending to below eye or preoperculum; 15 segmented caudal rays; vertebrae 29–32; an interneural gap between neural arches after the first dorsal fin and before the second dorsal fin, without a pterygiophore; vomer and palatine without teeth. The genus is easily distinguished from other eleotridine Australian genera by the combination of seven dorsal spines and transverse papilla pattern.

The genus Philypnodon was placed within the subfamily Eleotrinae of the Gobiidae by Hoese and Gill (1993), but did not treat relationships within the subfamily. Thacker and Hardman (2005) suggested a close relationship of Philypnodon with the New World genera Microphilypnus and Leptophilypnus , based on molecular studies. Both genera have features in common with Philypnodon including an interneural gap (a space between neural arches after the first dorsal fin and before the second dorsal fin without a pterygiophore; a derived feature within the Eleotrinae ) and a transverse papilla pattern, a combination found only in these genera and in Thalasseleotris in the Eleotrinae ( Hoese and Gill, 1993) .

The genus is confined to the freshwaters and estuaries of south-eastern Australia from the Burnett R. in Queensland to South Australia and from scattered localities in the Murray- Darling River system in New South Wales and South Australia .