[2] Protoblepharon rosenblatti was first described in 1997 by Carole C. Baldwin, G. David Johnson and John Richard Paxton and named in honour of the American ichthyologist Richard H. Rosenblatt, an expert on the Anomalopidae.

The type specimen was brought to the surface by hook and line from a depth of 274 m (900 ft) at Rarotonga in the Cook Islands.

This is located on a short stalk and is capable of being rotated downwards so that it is concealed in a pocket which has a stretchable black shutter membrane.

[4] It glows all the time, but the flashlight fish can turn it on and off by concealing it in the pocket below the organ which has a black shutter mechanism.

The fish are nocturnal, hiding during the day in caves and dark places at depths of several hundred metres.