Author: (Zugmayer, 1911)
Lobiancha dofleini (Zugmayer, 1911)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Lobianchia dofleini (Zugmayer, 1911) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 16 (15-17); anal finrays 14 (13-15); pectora finrays 12 (11-13). Gillrakers 5 (4-6) + 1 + 13 (12-14), total 19 (18-20 rarely 17 or 21). AO 5 (4-6) + 5 (4-6), total 10 (11, rarely 9). Males with supra-caudal gland only, consisting of 7-8 luminous scales, flanked by smaller triangular scales to achieve quincunx pattern. Females with infra caudal gland only, consisting of 3-4 luminous scales, flanked by trian gular scales. Size: to 50 mm (eastern North Atlantic and South Atlantic or to 38 mm (western North Atlantic).
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic. Mediterranean: day at 375-600 n (maximum abundance at 375-500 m); night at 25-400 m (maximun abundance at 40-150 m). Canaries: day at 300-500 m; night at 25-200 m Bermuda: day at 451-750 m (maximum abundance at 551-600 m); night at 50-250 m (maximum abundance at 50 m). Size stratification with depth both day and night (Mediterranean, Canaries, Bermuda), but with adult absent from 25 to 50 m (Canaries) and with reversed size stratification with depth in winter (Bermuda). Feeds nocturnally or during vertical migration. Food: copepods and ostracods. Reproduction: caudal glands develop in males at 19 mm and in females at 22 mm; sexually mature from about 31 mm. Spawning January-June with peak in winter (Bermuda) and throughout the year with peak in February-June (Mediterranean).
Distribution: Atlantic and Mediterranean: widespread pattern, between 50° N and 40° S, but absent in South Sargasso Sea and in minimun region off Brazil; western North Atlantic specimens forming a discrete population from eastern North Atlantic specimens and from South Atlantic specimens (30° S-13° S to Subtropical Convergence). Elsewhere: southern Indian and Pacific Oceans in the regions of Subtropical Convergence.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Tåning, 1918: 76-83, fig. 29, 31-32 | Tortonese, 1956: 947-948, fig. 817 | Moser and Ahlström, 1974: 406, fig. 9 | Berdar and Cavaliere, 1975: 117, pl. 1-4.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kolthaus, 1972a: 12, 26, fig. 66.