Author: Goode and Bean, 1896
Lampanyctus alatus Goode and Bean, 1896
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Lampanyctus alatus Goode and Bean, 1896 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 12 (11); anal finrays 17 (16-18); pectoral finrays 12 (11-13). Gillrakers (North Atlantic population) 4 (rarely 3) + 1 + 9, total 14 (rarely 13); (South Atlantic population) 3 + 1 + 9 (8), total 13 (12). AO 6 (5-7) + 6-7 (5-8), total 12-13 (11). Luminous gland at origin of adipose fin. One cheek photophore. Secondary photophores on head and body and on fins. Minute serial photophores on branchiostegal membrane between branchiostegal rays. Size: to 61 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic. Canaries: day at 600-930 m; night at 70-150 m. Bermuda: day at 700-850 m; night at 50-300 m. Generally: day at 275-1,000 m; night at 40-275 m (maximum abundance at 50-100 m). Food: no data. Reproduction: sexually mature from about 40 mm.
Distribution: Atlantic: broadly tropical pattern (thermophobic eurytropical subpattern), in eastern sector mainly south of 20° N (isolates as far north as 40° N) to 5° S and from 13° to 35° S (eastern sector); isolates only in Brazil Current between 5° and 38° S; in western North Atlantic mainly in slope water region to 45° N and in Gulf of Mexico, but also to lesser extent in Caribbean and North Sargasso Seas. Elsewhere: Indian Ocean (between 0° and 39° S), Pacific (South-East Asian seas from 20° N to 10° S, east of Taiwan and east coast of Australia to 34° S).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). Kotthaus, 1972a: 14, 27, fig. 83; 1972b: 32, pl. II (fig. 15).