Author: Tåning, 1928
Myctophum selenops Tåning, 1928
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Myctophum selenops Tåning, 1928 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: dorsal finrays 13; anal finrays 18 (17-19); pectoral finrays 17 (15-18). Gillrakers 7 (6) + 1 + 15 (14-16), total 23 (21-24). AO 7 (6-8) + 3 (2-4), total 10 (9-11). Supra-caudal gland only in both males 6 (5-7) large overlapping luminous scales) and females 3 (2-4) smaller overlapping luminous scales). Size: to 72 mm.
Habitat: high-oceanic, mesopelagic: day at 225-450 m; night at 40- 225 m. Specimens larger than 30 mm below 100 m at night. Food: no data. Reproduction: caudal glands develop in males at 30 mm and in females at 34 mm; sexually mature from about 50 mm. Spawns in spring (Hawaii).
Distribution: Atlantic: broadly tropical pattern (holo-eurytropical sub pattern), between 42° N and 38° S, but with lower abundance in South Sargasso Sea and absent over Mauritanian upwelling region (19°-8° N) and minimum region off Brazil (10°-21° S). Elsewhere, Indian and Pacific Oceans in tropical and subtropical waters.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Moser and Ahlström, 1974: 400, fig. 7 A.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.