Light pegs
Light pegs | ||||||||||||
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Searsia koefoedi |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Platytroctidae | ||||||||||||
Roule , 1919 |
The light herrings (Platytroctidae; Syn . : Searsiidae) are a family of the Alepocephaliformes . The fish, which grow to be 9 to 30 centimeters long, live in the deep sea , mostly at depths between 300 and 1000 meters in the Atlantic , Indian and Pacific Oceans . They are missing in the Mediterranean .
features
The fish do not have a swim bladder . A black pigmented blister under the shoulder girdle, the shoulder bag, produces a glowing slimy fluid that can be expelled for defense through a ventral channel at the start of the sideline . Many species have luminous organs that are horizontal in juvenile fish and downward in adult fish. Platytroctes apus have no pelvic fins.
Pectoral 14–28, ventral 6–10, 4–8 gill rays, 40 to 52 vertebrae .
Genera and species
There are 13 genera, which together contain 39 species.
- Barbantus (Parr, 1951)
- Holtbyrnia (Parr, 1937)
- Matsuichthys (Sazonov, 1992)
- Maulisia (Parr, 1960)
- Mentodus (Parr, 1951)
- Mirorictus (Parr, 1947)
- Normichthys (Parr, 1951)
- Pectinantus (Sazonov, 1986)
- Persparsia (Parr, 1951)
- Platytroctes (Günther, 1878)
- Sagamichthys (Parr, 1953)
- Searsia (Parr, 1937)
- Searsioides (Sazonov, 1977)
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson, Fishes of the World , John Wiley & Sons, 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7
Web links
- Light pegs on Fishbase.org (English)