Author: Regan and Trewavas, 1929
Chirostomias pliopterus Regan and Trewavas, 1929
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Chirostomias pliopterus Regan and Trewavas, 1930 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body moderately long, its depth less than 10 times in SL. Head with moderately long snout tapering almost to a point; lower jaw not longer than upper jaw, not curved strongly upward; barbel short, up to about 3 1/4 head length or 15% SL; tip of barbel a prominent bulb, with two or three distal lobes and filaments of various length and complexity. Pectoral fin with 6 rays, all about equal in length, branched distally, some bearing prominent lumps of luminous material; pelvic fins low on body, their insertions close together near mid-ventral line; base of anal fin slightly longer than that of dorsal fin, origin of anal fin slightly, but noticeably, in advance of dorsal origin; a small dorsal adipose fin present. Photophores in ventral row between pectoral and pelvic fin insertions (PV) 25-28, post-orbital organ small in females, moderately large in males, the triangular exposed part becoming about as long as eye diameter; no pre-orbital or sub-orbital organ; no large patches of luminous material on head behind eye. Colour: head and body black with green, blue or bronze iridescence; no pale loop or line on flanks. Size: to more than 20 cm.
Habitat, etc.: see family.
Distribution: northward to about 45° N; not in Mediterranean. Elsewhere, across the North Atlantic between about 20° and 40° N.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Beebe and Crane, 1939: 116.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.