Author: Tåning, 1928
Lampanyctus cuprarius Tåning, 1928
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Nannobrachium cuprarium (Tåning, 1928) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 17 (rarely 16 or 18), anal finrays 18-19 (20). Gillrakers 5 + 1 + 11 (10-12), total 17 (16-18). AO 6 (5) + 5-6, total 11-12. Size: to 40 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic mesopelagic. Canaries: day at 700-900 m; night at 100-500 m (maximum abundance at 200-400 m). Bermuda: day at 600-1,200 m (maximum abundance at 750-800 m); night at 50-1,000 m (maximum abundance at 51-100 m (small specimens) and at 251-300 m (medium-sized specimens)). In Bermuda juveniles (31-51 mm) migrate to 50-150 m at night only in June; larger specimens ( > 45 mm) deeper than 700 m. Nocturnal feeding rhythm. Food: amphipods, calanoid copepods, conchoecid ostracods and euphausiid larvae and adults. Reproduction: sexually mature from about 70 mm.
Distribution: endemic Atlantic: subtropical pattern (Gyral-eye subpattern), in lens of high temperature/high salinity water over central regions of anticyclonic gyrals in both northern and southern hemispheres, i.e. between 20° and 35° N, with isolates to 40° N and between 18° and 21° S (eastern sector); and between 20° and 35° N, with isolates between 12° and 40° N, and between 6° and 28° S (western sector).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: 14, 27, fig. 82.