Author: Maul, 1957
Holtbyrnia macrops Maul, 1957
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Holtbyrnia macrops Maul, 1957 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fairly compressed, head fairly large, but less than onethird body length. Snout pointed, premaxillary tusks pointing straight forward. Gillrakers 25-30 (about 20-24 in juveniles less than 55 mm), 58 on upper limb. No pit behind shoulder girdle. Pyloric caeca 9, producing 10-22 terminal diverticulae. Dorsal fin far back on body, with 18-21 finrays; pectoral fins small, with 17-20 finrays; pelvic fins a little behind midpoint of body, with 8-10 finrays; anal fin origin behind that of dorsal fin, with 14-18 finrays. Light organs present; organ on underside of caudal peduncle (ICO) single; those between tips of pectoral fins (THO) and a little before pelvic fin bases (MVO) forming transverse bars. Lateral line scales 44?-56, enlarged, modified. Colour: uniformly dark. Size: to about 20 cm.
Habitat: mesopelagic or bathypelagic to benthopelagic in the northern parts of range, occurring at about 300 1,000 m in daylight,
but as shallow as 100-120 m at night. Food: no data. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: northwards from Madeira to Bay of Biscay and to Denmark Strait. Elsewhere, the Canaries and southward to about 5° S in tropical central Atlantic, also eastern South Atlantic.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Quero, 1970: 271, 274, fig. 10.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: 6, 24, fig. 4.