Author: Garman, 1899
Myctophum nitidulum Garman, 1899
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Myctophum nitidulum Garman, 1899 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 13 (12-14); anal finrays 20 (18-21); pectoral finrays 13 (12-14). Gillrakers 5 (6, rarely 4) + 1 + 13 (11-15), total 19 (17-22). AO 9 (7-10) + 5 (4-7), total 14 (12-15). Males with 6-7 overlapping luminous scales supra-caudally; females with 3-5 partially overlapping luminous patches infra-caudally. Size: to 83 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic: day at 475-850 m; nyctoepipelagic the surface and down to 200 m with occasional specimens to 950 m. Small specimens (<30 mm) below the surface at night. Food: no data. Reproduction: caudal glands develop in males at 35 mm and in females at 48 mm; sexually mature from about 64 mm. Spawning peak in early spring (Bermuda).
Distribution: all three oceans and related to the development of a steep thermocline. Atlantic: broadly tropical pattern (thermophilic eurytropical subpattern), between about 42° N and 31° S (western sector) and between 35° N and 20° S (eastern sector) and as expatriates in Agulhas pockets in eastern South Atlantic. Elsewhere: Indian Ocean (between 7 N and 24° S) and Pacific (between 32° N and 31° S, but with northern extension to 40° N in Kuroshivo Current).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Moser and Ahlström, 1970: 80-87, fig. 24-25 | Moser and Ahlström, 1974: 400, fig. 5 D.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.