Bathophilus digitatus
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Stomiiformes
Stomiidae (Dragonfishes)
Bathophilus
Bathophilus digitatus
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Elongate and slender body; moderately long, blunt snout; long and slender chin barbel; pelvic fins near midline of flank. Body depth about 10% and head length 21.8% of SL. Lower jaw equal to upper jaw, not turned up at tip. Premaxilla with 4 stout, fixed teeth. Lower jaw with 10 teeth, second largest. Chin barbel about 50% of SL or longer, lacking bulb and filaments. Pectoral fin with 11 to 13 free rays. Dorsal fin with 14 rays, anal fin with 15 rays. Pelvic fin with 9 or 10 free filamentous rays. IP number 10 or 11, PV number 15 or 16, VAV number 12 or 13. OV number 14 to 16, VAL number 10 to 12. Preorbital and suborbital luminous organs absent. Po about twice diameter of eye. Body covered with small photophores.
Blackish with iridescent blue, green, or bronze cast. Barbel lacks pigment.
Distribution
Western Atlantic off Bermuda, Cuba, the Bahamas to the Lesser Antilles, and in the Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Tropical to subtropical seas between the surface and 500 m
Biology
Myctophids
170 mm SL
Mesopelagic species (Ref. 4468). Also Ref. 58302.
Reproductive mode: dioecism; fertilization: external; nonguarders (open water/substratum egg scatterers); parental care: none.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2013-05-20. Resilience: Medium (Assuming tmax>3).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by the combination of characters described
References
Morrow and Gibbs 1964
Barnett and Gibbs 1968
Gibbs 1984d
Gibbs 1986d
Sutton and Hopkins 1996, in press
Gibbs, R.H. Jr. (1986) Melanostomiidae. p. 236-243. In M.M. Smith and P.C. Heemstra (eds.) Smiths' sea fishes. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Gibbs, R.H. and M.A. Barnett (1990) Melanostomiidae. p. 308-337. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 1.
Sutton, T.T. and T.L. Hopkins (1996) Trophic ecology of the stomiid (Pisces: Stomiidae) fish assemblage of the eastern Gulf of Mexico: strategies, selectivity and impact of a top mesopelagic predator group. Mar. Biol. 127:179-192.
Mundy, B.C. (2005) Checklist of the fishes of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Bishop Mus. Bull. Zool. (6):1-704.
Patzner, R.A. (2008) Reproductive strategies of fish. pp. 311-350. In Rocha, M.J., A. Arukwe and B.G. Kapoor (eds). Fish reproduction: cytology, biology and ecology. Science Publisher, Inc. Oxford. 631 p.
Comments On Bathophilus digitatus