HIMANTOLOPHIDAE

Mincarone, Michael Maia, Afonso, Gabriel Vinícius Felix, Di Dario, Fabio, Eduardo, Leandro Nolé, Frédou, Thierry, Lucena-Frédou, Flávia, Bertrand, Arnaud & Pietsch, Theodore Wells, 2021, Deep-sea anglerfishes (Lophiiformes: Ceratioidei) from off northeastern Brazil, with remarks on the ceratioids reported from the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone, Neotropical Ichthyology 19 (2), pp. 1-28 : 5

HIMANTOLOPHIDAE

Females of the Himantolophidae are distinguished by having a short, deep, globular body; lower jaw unusually blunt, extending anteriorly beyond the upper jaw; illicium thick and stout, esca unusually large and anatomically complex, the pterygiophore of the illicium fully embedded in the dermis of the head; low and rounded wart-like papilla covering the snout and chin; sphenotic spines well developed, spines absent on quadrate, articular, angular and preopercular bones; jaw teeth numerous and short, arranged in several close-set longitudinal series, vomer broad and toothless; skin of specimens larger than 30–40 mm SL, with large, widely spaced bony plates, each bearing a single median spine; 5–6 dorsal-fin rays, 4 anal-fin rays, 14–18 pectoral fin-rays, 9 caudal-fin rays; males free-living, apparently never parasitic on females (Bertelsen, Krefft, 1988; Pietsch, 2009).