Author: Dieuzeide, 1950
Epigonus denticulatus Dieuzeide, 1950
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Epigonus denticulatus Dieuzeide, 1950 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fusiform, slightly compressed; head moderate, snout short, blunt; opercle without fully ossified spine but with 3-7 (usually 5-6) membranous projections on its upper edge. Mouth large; teeth small, conical, occasionally recurved in 1-4 rows on jaws, vomer and palatines. Gillrakers 28-34 on first arch. Dl VII; D2 I + 9-10; A II + 8-9; P 18-20; pelvic fins thoracic; caudal fin forked. Scales large, ctenoid, deciduous; lateral line 46-49. Pyloric caeca 10-14. Colour: (preserved specimens) brownish to yellowish, dorsally darker; numerous brown-black melanophores on scale pockets. Size: to 19 cm SL.
Habitat: bathybenthic on continental slope, adults at 200-830 m (usually at 300-600 m); pelagic juveniles caught at 130-145 m and 350-425 m (Mayer, 1954). Food: small fishes and planktonic invertebrates, mainly crustacean larvae. Reproduction: in spring (Mediterranean).
Distribution: the only cosmopolitan species in the genus. In the area, Mediterranean and eastern North Atlantic near Straits of Gibraltar. Elsewhere, eastern Atlantic (off Africa), western Atlantic (Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico), Pacific (off Japan, New Zealand and south Australia).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). Dieuzeide, 1950b: 96, fig. 9.