Author: (Vaillant, 1888)
Venefica proboscidea (Vaillant, 1888)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Venefica proboscidea (Vaillant, 1888) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body very elongate and slender, scaleless. Snout with a long fleshy projection at tip (at least half of snout length); anterior nostril tubular, at the base of snout tip; posterior nostril a pore in front of eye. Jaws long and slender. Teeth cardiform on jaws and vomer; premaxillary teeth larger, in a triangular patch; palato-pterygoid teeth absent. Gill openings small, subventral. Dorsal, anal and caudal fins confluent; dorsal fin origin over gill opening; pectoral and pelvic fins absent. Lateral line with 59-60 preanal pores, 8 or 9 before gill openings; supra-temporal pores. Vertebrae: total number unknown (all known specimens mutilated); abdominal 54-72. Colour: brownish. Size: to 96 cm.
Habitat: benthic on continental slope down to 2.000 m. Food: no data. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: eastern Atlantic, from Morocco to South Africa. Elsevhere, northern Indian Ocean.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Schmidt, 1909c: 5, pl. 1 (fig. 4 5) (Leptocephalus rostratus) | Murray and Hjort, 1912b: fig. 95 | Fish, 1927: 308 | Ancona, 1928: 520 | Castle, 1969: 51.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.