Author: Tåning, 1928
Diaphus mollis Tåning, 1928
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Diaphus mollis Tåning, 1928 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 13 (rarely 12 or 14); anal finrays 13 (rarely 12 or 14); pectoral finrays 10 (11, rarely 9 or 12). Gillrakers 5 (rarely 4 or 6) + 1 + 11-12 (rarely 10 or 13), total 17-18 (16-19). AO 5 (46, rarely 7) + 4 (3-5), total 9 (8-10). PLO-scale with mottled appearance. Vn larger in adult males than in females. Size: to 66 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic. Canaries: day at 300-500 m; night at 50-300 m. Bermuda: day at 300-800 m (maximum abundance at 450-600 m); night at 33-350 m (maximum abundance at 33-100 m). Size stratification at night (Bermuda and Canaries). Food: no data. Reproduction: sexually mature from about 30 mm. Spawns in spring-summer (Bermuda).
Distribution: Atlantic: broadly tropical pattern (holo-eurytropical subpattern), between 50° N and about 40° S (western sector) and between 35° N and about 40° S (eastern sector); but as expatriates south of about 36° S (western sector) and about 25° S (eastern sector); lower relative abundance over upwelling region off West Africa and over minimum region off Brazil. Elsewhere: Indian Ocean (between 0° and about 34° S, west of 70° E; between 0° and 15° S, west of 80° E; and at 38° S, 100° E) and Pacific (south of 20° S, west of 170° W and in Tasman Sea; centrally between 30° N and 7° S; and in the eastern sector between 25° N and 15° S).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: 13, 26, fig. 71.