Author: Brauer, 1906
Cyclothone alba Brauer, 1906
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Cyclothone alba Brauer, 1906 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fairly elongate; mouth large; premaxillary teeth even; vomer without teeth. Pseudobranch absent; gillrakers on first arch 13, 3 on hypobranchial, a single raker in articulation of epi- and ceratobranchial (Fig. 1a); gill filaments short, fused basally in broad segment shape along hypobranchial; branchiostegal rays 12, 5 on epihyal. Dorsal finrays 12-14; pectoral finrays 9-10; pelvic finrays 6; anal finrays 17-20; dorsal and anal fin origins about opposite; last dorsal and anal finrays not split to base; dorsal adipose fin absent; anus close to pelvic fin base. Vertebrae 31 (32). Scales absent. Photophores: SO absent, ORB 1, OP 2, BR 8 (9), IV 3 + 10; VAV 3-4 evenly spaced, one anterior to genital opening; AC 12, one between last anal and first procurrent ray; OA 6; opercular and pre-caudal glands inconspicuous. Colour: white ground colour with few melanophores; membrane between posteriormost branchiostegal rays transparent or at most with single stellate melanophore between each pair of rays; brown pigment conspicuous between anal pterygiophores. Size: male to 29 mm, female to 34 mm SL.
Habitat: oceanic, mesopelagic; pre-metamorphic post-larvae at 25-150 m, juveniles and adults at 300 600 m; no diel vertical migrations. Food: no data. Reproduction: dioecious.
Distribution: circumglobal; tropical in North Atlantic, sampled occasionally in Clofnam area; northern record 60° N, 20° W; absent in Mediterranean.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Grey, 1964: 185.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1967: 21, fig. 27.