Morphological Variation in Antlered Sculpins of the Genus Enophrys Swainson, 1839 (Cottidae)

A comparative morphological analysis has been conducted for antlered sculpins of the genus Enophrys from three remote regions: the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Bering Sea. Variations in their body color pattern and also meristic and measurable characters have been analyzed. As the analysis has shown, antlered sculpins from the Sea of Japan differ significantly from the two other samples in their body color, some head proportions, and the size and location of the fins D1, D2, A, V, and P. Differences on the subspecies level (CD > 1.28) have been found for five of the studied characters and a hiatus (differences on the species level) for one character (depth of D1). The data we obtained confirm the previously published assumption that the fish from the Sea of Japan possibly belong to the species E. namiyei.