Author: Garman, 1899

Argyropelecus affinis Garman, 1899

Diagnosis: body laterally compressed, profile ventral to dorsal blade smooth and not raised markedly posterior to blade, snout profile smooth; eye tubular, directed dorsally; mouth vertical; gillrakers on first arch 1820, branchiostegal rays 10, 3 on epihyal. Dorsal finrays 9, followed by a dorsal adipose fin; dorsal blade low, its height less than one-third its length; pectoral finrays (10) 11-12; pelvic finrays 6; anal finrays 13. Postorbital spine absent; upper preopercular spine short, not extending posterior to opercle, leading laterally and hooked anteriorly (adults) or straight and directed latero-posteriorly (juveniles under about 22 mm SL); lower spine long, curved anteriorly (adults) or straight (under about 30 mm SL); posterior edge of exposed part of anterior cleithral notch with (3) 4-7 weak serrations; post-abdominal spines short, equal; ventral keel shallow, extending little beyond PV photophore. Vertebrae (38) 39 (40). Swimbladder well developed, gas-filled, euphysoclistous. Scales deciduous. Photophores: configuration of compound light organs changes in some groups after adult complement is acquired: initial configuration, BR (6); IP (6); PV (4) + (2) + (2) + (4); VAV (2) + (2); AC, (1) + (3) + (2); AC2 (1) + (3). Colour: back dark, flanks silvery. Size: to 72 mm SL.

Habitat: oceanic, mesopelagic at 300-600 m (sometimes shallower); nonmigrant or makes short diel migrations. Food: in smaller animals, copepods and ostracods, tending to euphausiids, salps, chaetognaths in larger ones. Reproduction: dioecious; adult complement of photophores acquired at about 14 mm SL.

Distribution: circumglobal, subtropical- tropical; rare in area: 'occasional captures between Azores and Madeira' (Baird, 1971); absent in Mediterranean (but see Tortonese & Hureau, 1979).

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Brauer, 1906: 103, fig. 44.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Superclass Gnathostomata
Class Osteichthyes
Order Clupeiformes
Suborder Stomiatoidei
Family Sternoptychidae
Genus Argyropelecus
Species Argyropelecus affinis

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Argyropelecus affinis Garman, 1899

Scientific synonyms and common names

Argyropelecus affinis Garman, 1899

Synonyms:

Argyropelecus affinis Garman, 1899, Mem. Mus. comp. Zool., Harvard, 24: 237 (tropical North Atlantic). Holotype: USNM no. 44593.
Argyropelecus affinis: Brauer, 1906: 103, fig. 43 Regan, 1908: 218 Norman, 1930: 301, fig. 9 Jespersen, 1934: fiche 85 Parr, 1937: 49 Nybelin, 1948: 23 Schultz, 1961: 597, fig. 9 Baird, 1971: 34-48, fig. 19.
Argyropelecus pacificus Schultz, 1961, Proc. U.S. natn. Mus., 112: 599, fig. 4 (Kona, Hawaii). Holotype: USNM no. 164000.


Common names:

none

Garman, S. 1899. Reports on a exploration off the west coasts of Mexico, Central and South America, and off the Galapagos Islands in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U.S. Fish Commission Steamer 'Albatross' during 1891, Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, U.S.A. commanding. XXVI. The Fishes. Mem. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 24 :1-431, 97 pl., I map.

Jespersen, P. 1933-1934. Gonostomatidae and Sternoptychidae. In: L. Joubin, ed., Faune ichthyol. Atlant. N., Copenhagen: fiches 70-89.

Norman, J. R. 1930. Oceanic fishes and flatfishes collected in 1925-27. 'Discovery' Rep., 2: 261-370, 47 fig., 2 pl.

Nybelin, 0. 1948. Fishes collected by the Skagerak Expedition in the eastern Atlantic 1946. Goteborgs K Vetensk.-o. VitterSamh. Handl., (B) 5 (16): 1-95, 9 fig., 6 pl. (also publ. in Meddn Göteborgs Mus., zool. Avd., 121: 3-95, 6 pl.).

Parr, A. E. 1937. Concluding report on fishes with species index for articles 1-7. (Fishes of the third oceanographic expedition of the 'Pawnee'.) Bull. Bingham oceanogr. Coll, 3 (7): 79 p., fig. 1-22.

Regan, C. T. 1908. The systematic position of Stylophorus caudatus. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 2: 447-449.

Regan, C. T. 1908d. Report on the marine fishes collected by Mr. J. Stanley Gardiner in the Indian Ocean. Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., (2)12 (3), Zool.: 217-255.

Schultz, L. P. 1961. Revision of the marine silver hatchetfishes (Family Sternoptychidae). Proc. U.S. natn. Mus., 112: 587-649.

Brauer, A. 1906. Die Tiefseefische. 1. Systematischer Teil. Wiss. Ergebn. dt. Tiefsee-Exped. 'Valdivia', Iena, 15 (1): 1-432, 18 pl., 176 fig.

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