Author: Beebe, 1933
Photostylus pycnopterus Beebe, 1933
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Photostylus pycnopterus Beebe, 1933 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fairly elongate. Head small, with steep forehead; eye small, less than snout; upper jaw reaching to about hind margin of eye. Pyloric caeca 3-4(6). Dorsal fin far back on body, with 12-15 finrays; pectoral fins with 17-20 finrays; pelvic fins with 6(7) finrays; anal fin opposite dorsal fin, with 16-19 finrays. Scales absent, but small light organs on stalks scattered over head and body. Colour: brownish. Size: to 11 cm.
Habitat: bathypelagic at 1,000-2,000 m, associated with steeply inclined slopes; infrequently caught. Food: no data. Reproduction: ovarian eggs relatively large (1.8 mm in diameter) and few (96 in a female of 10 cm).
Distribution: scattered records from deepwater from south of Madeira, the Azores and northward to Iceland. Elsewhere, circumglobal.
Eggs, larvae and young stages, Goodyear, 1969: 399 (ovarial eggs).
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: fig. 1.