Author: Johnson, 1862
Synaphobranchus kaupi Johnson, 1862
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Synaphobranchus kaupii Johnson, 1862 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body elongate, slender, compressed posteriorly, greatest depth at trunk; trunk short. Head conical, tip of snout turned downwards, not prominent. Anterior nostril subterminal and subtubular, posterior nostril a collared pore before eye. Mouth reaching to about one eye diameter behind posterior margin of eye, jaws slender, the lower turned upwards at tip, lips absent. Teeth minute, conical, recurved, multiserial on both jaws, the largest on premaxillary; ethmoid in an oval patch separated from uni- or biserial vomerine teeth. Gill slits united below. Dorsal fin low, anal fin more developed, both confluent with caudal fin; dorsal fin origin well behind vent; pectoral fins moderately alternated, their length slightly more than snout. Lateral line with 30 preanal pores, 8 prepectoral pores. Vertebrae 142-152. Scales present over whole of body except head. Colour: black to brown; vertical fins with lighter edge anteriorly. Size: to 81.3 cm.
Habitat: benthopelagic on continental slope from 400 to 4,800 m, near the upper limit of abyssal zone. Food: mainly decapoda, natantia, amphipods, but also fishes and cephalopods, sometimes of big size. Reproduction: during warm hydrological season.
Distribution: eastern North Atlantic from south of Ireland and the Faroes; not recorded in Mediterranean. Elsewhere, western North Atlantic and Indian Ocean.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Collett, 1905b: 387, fig. 147 | Schmidt, 1906a: 236, pl. 9 (fig. 46); 1909c: 7, fig. 3, tab. 1-2 | Ehrenbaum, 1909: 387, fig. 147 | Laloy, 1910: 207 | Schmidt, 1913: 12, fig. 5-9, pl. 2 (fig. 1 4) | Bertin, 1926: 332, tab. 6 | Fish, 1927: 307 | Bruun, 1937: 9-29, pl. 1 | Bertin, 1939: 388 | Nybelin, 1948: 54 | Castle, 1964: 40 | Mead et al., 1964: 576 | Castle, 1969: 26.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.