Author: Gilbert, 1913
Benthosema suborbitale Gilbert, 1913
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Benthosema suborbitale (Gilbert, 1913) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 13 (12, rarely 14); anal finrays 17 (16-18); pectoral finrays 14 (13). Gillrakers 3 (rarely 4) + 1 + 10 (9, rarely 11), total 14 (13, rarely 15). AO 6 (5-7) + 5 (6), total 11 (12). Males with single supra-caudal gland; females with two luminous patches infra-caudally, coalescing with age to a single gland. Size: to 39 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic: day at 375-750 m (maximum abundance at 500-600 m); nyctoepipelagic at the surface and down to 125 m (maximum abundance at 10-50 m). Non-migrants include juveniles (10-12 mm) (Hawaii), hght-coloured juveniles (Madeira) and transforming post-larvae or recently transformed juveniles (Bermuda). Food: no data. Reproduction: caudal glands develop in both sexes from about 19 mm; sexually mature from about 28 mm. Spawning peak (Hawaii) in spring/summer.
Distribution: Atlantic: broadly tropical pattern (thermophobic eurytropical subpattern), between about 47° N and about 10° S (western sector) and between 37° N and southern Subtropical Convergence (eastern sector); generally absent over Mauritanian upwelling region. Elsewhere: Indian and Pacific Oceans: southern equatorial water masses with extensions to 50° N and 50° S in western boundary currents.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Pertseva-Ostroumova, 1964: 79, fig. 1 | Moser and Ahlström, 1974: 397, fig. 3 C.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: 25, fig. 55; 1972b: 14, pl. 1 (fig. 2).