Bathylutichthys was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1990 by the Russian ichthyologists Arkady Vladimirovich Balushkin and Olga Stepanovna Voskoboinikova when they described Bathylutichthys taranetzi from off South Georgia.

A second species, Bathylutichthys balushkini was described by Voskoboinikova from the Meteor Shoal in the southeastern Atlantic.

[2] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies the genus in the monotypic family Bathylutichthyidae,[3] other authorities place the genus in the subfamily Psychrolutinae in the family Psychrolutidae.

[4] There are currently 2 recognized species in this genus: Bathylutichthys sculpins have naked, scaleless bodies.

There is a pair of long barbels on the lower jaw at the corner of the mouth> They have one dorsal fin with the anterior part embedded under the skin.