Redescription of a rare deep-sea batfish, Halieutopsis bathyoreos (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae)

Abstract

Halieutopsis bathyoreos Bradbury, 1988 (Lophiiformes: Ogcocephalidae), previously described only on the basis of the holotype (62.6 mm in standard length) from the central North Pacific, is redescribed on the basis of the holotype and six additional specimens (41.2–68.7 mm in standard length) collected from the western South Pacific, off Papua New Guinea, and the western North Pacific, including the Japanese Archipelago. Halieutopsis bathyoreos is distinguished from its congeners by having a shelflike rostrum extending anteriorly well beyond the mouth, a dorsal escal lobe slightly bisected ventrally, an illicial cavity square in outline and completely visible in ventral view, and lacking tubercles on the ventral surface of the disk. The following characters are newly added to the diagnoses of this species: rostrum width 21–29% of head length, tubercles on the dorsal surface of the disk about half the diameter of those on the lateral margin, and 13–15 large lateral-line scales on the tail.