Lestidiops affinis
No common name
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Aulopiformes
Paralepididae (Barracudinas)
Lestidiops
Lestidiops affinis
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, slender, and moderately compressed body; lower jaw curved upward; dorsal fin distinctly posterior to pelvic fin insertion; body depth 6.1-7.3% SL; head length 16.7-18.1% SL; snout length 7.1-7.6% SL; premaxilla with 2-4 depressible canine teeth anteriorly and 12-26 small, fixed uniserial teeth posteriorly; lower jaw with 7 or 8 moderate-sized canine teeth, each accompanied by one small, fixed canine tooth; vomer lacks teeth; palatine with 2-14 large, depressible canine teeth anteriorly and 2-7 short, fixed uniserial teeth posteriorly; gill membranes joined near anterior margin of eye and free of isthmus; pectoral fin inserts on lower flank with 10-12 rays; dorsal fin originates posterior to anus with 8-10 rays; pelvic fin anterior to midlength with 9 rays; anal fin with 27-29 rays; scales lacking except for embedded lateral line scales; lateral line sections diamond-shaped with 58-61 scales; tympana Y-shaped; vertebrae number 75-83; luminous organ absent
Body unpigmented except for dense, narrow, dorsal band of melanophores; dark brassy pigment covering snout, head, and upper side of caudal peduncle; and midventral line of 8-14 stellate chromatophores
Distribution
Western Atlantic from New Jersey (about 40°N) to northern Brazil (about 10°S)
Eastern Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Tropical to warm temperate Atlantic; depth range from surface to 2,000 m
Adults and adolescents occur from 200 to 2,000 m; postlarvae from surface to 200 m; most common in the Sargasso Sea
Biology
Planktonic crustaceans
Maximum known size is 103 mm SL
Oceanic species (Ref. 26340) occurring from the surface (young) to about 2,000 m depth (Ref. 4473).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2013-01-29. Resilience: High (Preliminary K or Fecundity.).
Phylogeny and Morphologically Similar Fishes
Distinguished from other species of the family by the combination of characters described
References
Rofen 1966a
Rass 1971
Murdy et al. 1983
Post 1984c
Post, A. (1990) Paralepididae. p. 373-384. 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.
Claro, R. (1994) Características generales de la ictiofauna. p. 55-70. In R. Claro (ed.) Ecología de los peces marinos de Cuba. Instituto de Oceanología Academia de Ciencias de Cuba and Centro de Investigaciones de Quintana Roo.
McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm (1998) Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Volume 1: Myxiniformes to Gasterosteiformes. University of Texas Press, Austin. 1112p.
Comments On Lestidiops affinis