Author: Gill and Ryder, 1884
Serrivomer beani Gill and Ryder, 1884
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Serrivomer beanii Gill and Ryder, 1883 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body greatly elongate, its anterior section subcircular; caudal region very tapered, 73-80% TL. Skin very thin and delicate, easily torn. Head long; snout beak-like, jaws much produced, lower longer than upper. Teeth on vomer 50-100, blade-like, with a triangular tip, three to four times as long as wide, distributed in two parallel lines alternating and forming a conspicuous ridge on roof of mouth, its height decreasing progressively at each end, extended anteriorly (beyond maxillae) by numerous small teeth rather irregularly placed in several rows to beak tip; maxillary teeth in 3 or 4 rows, inner one with long, sharp and recurved teeth depressible antero-medially; dentary teeth in 3-5 rows, the penultimate inner with very long and sharp recurved teeth, depressible postero-medially; outer rows with very small teeth. Branchiostegal rays 7 (exceptionally 8), the first five with a process extending beyond point of attachment. Dorsal fin origin over eleventh to sixteenth anal ray, finrays 145-169; anal finrays 128-153; caudal finrays 5 or 6. Vertebrae 156- 163. Colour: silvery grey, head blackish or bluish-black. Size: to 70 cm.
Habitat: adults epi- to abyssopelagic at 150-3,000 m; larvae (Leptocephalus lanceolatus) at higher levels (O-300 m), with maximum density between 50 and 70 m. Food: shrimps (Euphausiacea), other crustaceans and small fishes. Reproduction: hatching area 25° to 28° N, 46° to 55° W, with western preferential dispersion.
Distribution: Madeira, the Azores, off southern Portugal and northwards to 56° N. Elsewhere, both sides of North Atlantic southward to Equator.
Note: Serrivomer parabeani was based on specimens in which the first branchiostegal ray did not possess a process projecting beyond the point of attachment to the hyoid arch. Individuals with this arrangement on one side, but the process present on the other (as in S. beani) suggest that it is merely an individual variation; no differences are found in meristic data or in the leptocephalus larvae (L. Ianceolatus).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. According to Bauchot, 1959, Leptocephalus lanceolatus Stromman, 1896, is the larval form of the 'systematic group Serrivomer beani-Serrivomer parabeani'.
Leptocephalus lanceolatus Stromman, 1896, Leptocephalids in the Univ. Zool. Mus. Upsala: 37, pl. IV (fig. 3-4) (Central Atlantic 34° N., 65° W.).
Leptocephalus lanceolatus: Blegvad, 1913: 139 | Ancona, 1928: 107 | Bauchot, 1959: 7, fig. 1, 105, pl. I-II.
Leptocephalus Beebe and Crane, 1936: 80 (pro parte).
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.