Author: Tåning, 1918
Diaphus holti Tåning, 1918
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Diaphus holti Tåning, 1918 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 14 (rarely 13); anal finrays 13 (rarely 12 or 14); pectoral finrays 11 (10). Gillrakers 6 (5, rarely 7) + 1 + 12-13 (11, rarely 14), total 19-20 (17-21, rarely 22). AO 5 (rarely 4 or 6) + 4 (rarely 3 or 5), total 9 (rarely 8 or 10). PLO-scale striated anteroventrally. Vn greatly enlarged in adult males. Size: to 70 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic. Mediterranean: day at 100-235 m and at 500-675 m (maximum abundance at 500-675 m); night at 80-235 m and at 400-600 m (maximum abundance at 100- 200 m). Post-larvae non-migratory at about 100 m. Small juveniles non-migratory at 400-600 m. Large juveniles, sub-adults and adults migratory (Mediterranean). Food: no data. Reproduction: sexually mature from about 45 mm. Spawns spring-summer (Mediterranean), with an east-to-west progression in spawning times. Gravid females are now known from depths less than 450 m.
Distribution: (?) endemic Mediterranean and Atlantic; north temperate pattern (Mediterranean subpattern), between 50° and 35° N, east of 45° W, but to about 8° N east of 35° W. Elsewhere: two specimens reported from the Indian Ocean at 29° 30' S, 64° 56' E (Nafpaktitis, 1978).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Tåning, 1918: 89-90, fig. 35 (2-5), 36 (post-larvae, metamorphosis stage).
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: 13, 26, fig. 72.