Author: (Risso, 1810)
Lampanyctus crocodilus (Risso, 1810)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Lampanyctus crocodilus (Risso, 1810) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 14 (13); anal finrays 17 (16-18); pectoral finrays 14 (13-15). Gillrakers 5 (rarely 4) + 1 + 11 (10-12), total 17 (16-18). AO 6 (7) + 8 (7-9), total 14 (13-16). Size: to 172 mm (Atlantic) and '200-300' mm (Mediterranean specimens).
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic. Mediterranean: day at 100-200 m and 700-1,000 m (maximum abundance at 700-800 m); night at 45-150 m and 400-1,000 m (maximum abundance at 45-100 m and to lesser extent at 700-800 m). Bermuda: day at 751-1,000 m (maximum abundance at 751-800 m); night uncertain. In Mediterranean small juveniles (13-33 mm) migratory; post-larvae, juveniles (> 33 mm) and sub-adults non-migratory at 45-150 m (post-larvae, juveniles) and 700-1,000 m (subadults). In Bermuda, small and large juveniles migratory. Food: no data. Reproduction: size at sexual maturity unknown. Apparently spawns in deepwater in spring-summer (Mediterranean) or in the autumn (Atlantic).
Distribution: endemic Mediterranean and Atlantic; north temperate pattern (boreal subpattern), between about 33° and 65° N, but with a marked decrease in abundance south of 54° N (eastern sector), in Mauritanian upwelling region and western sector, in slope water region.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Sanzo, 1918: 51-53 | Tåning, 1918: 112-117, fig. 44-45 | Legendre, 1934: 365, fig. 36 | Tortonese, 1956: 949-951, fig. 818, pl. LI (fig. 13).
Otoliths (sagitta). Frost, 1926: 468, pl. XX (fig. 14) | Kotthaus, 1972a: 14, 27, fig. 84.