Eustomias schmidti Regan & Trewavas, 1930

Villarins, Bárbara T., Dario, Fabio Di, Eduardo, Leandro N., Lucena-Frédou, Flávia, Bertrand, Arnaud, Prokofiev, Artem M. & Mincarone, Michael M., 2022, Deep-sea dragonfishes (Teleostei: Stomiiformes) collected from off northeastern Brazil, with a review of the species reported from the Brazilian Exclusive Economic Zone, Neotropical Ichthyology (e 220004) 20 (2), pp. 1-78 : 52

Eustomias schmidti Regan & Trewavas, 1930

( Fig. 15F )

Diagnosis. Eustomias schmidti differs from congeners by the presence of two pectoral-fin rays bound together in black tissue; chin barbel short, about 7–17% of SL; a distinct chin barbel anatomy, with three branches arising from the stem: the medial branch is stout, bulbous and with distal filaments, barely reaching to barbel tip, the lateral branches taper distally, extending well beyond end of barbel; terminal bulb of chin barbel unpigmented and long, occupying most of distal barbel, tightly constricted distally into a spheroidal terminal section, and with a terminal filament or single-based group of filaments arising ventrally from this constriction; deep ventral groove on belly relatively short, extending to PV 4–6; anal-fin base approximately twice as long as dorsal-fin base; postorbital photophore and barbel photophore probably glows green or blue (Morrow, Gibbs, 1964; Gibbs, 1986c; McEachran, Fechhelm, 1998; Clarke, 2000; Kenaley, Stewart, 2015h; Sutton et al., 2020).

Geographical distribution. Atlantic and Pacific oceans, between 40ºN and 40ºS (Morrow, Gibbs, 1964; Parin, Pokhilskaya, 1974; Bekker et al., 1975; Gibbs, 1986c; Gibbs, Barnett, 1990; Vinnichenko, 1997; Aizawa, 2002; Harold, 2003; Moore et al., 2003; Mundy, 2005; Kenaley, Stewart, 2015h; Carneiro et al., 2019; Sutton et al., 2020). In the western Atlantic the species is reported from off the United States to the Caribbean Sea, with a single record off southeastern Brazil, outside the country’s EEZ (Clarke, 2000; Menezes et al., 2003; Judkins, Haedrich, 2018). Melo et al. (2020) also included E. schmidti in a list of deep-sea fishes of Brazil, without providing information on voucher specimens or locality data. Therefore, the occurrence of E. schmidti is confirmed in Brazilian waters based on one specimen collected off the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago, at 850 m depth ( Fig. 14C ).

Specimen examined. 1: NPM 4882, 1 (68 mm), AB2#42A.

Figures

FIGURE 14 | Records of species of the Melanostomiinae (A–F) collected during the ABRACOS expeditions off northeastern Brazil. Oceanic islands: RA, Rocas Atoll; FN, Fernando de Noronha Archipelago.

FIGURE 15 | A. Eustomias bibulbosus, NPM 4642, 87 mm SL; B. Eustomias braueri, NPM 4816, 56 mm SL; C. Eustomias brevibarbatus, NPM 4646, 95 mm SL; D. Eustomias enbarbatus, NPM 4819, 60 mm SL; E. Eustomias minimus, NPM 4881, 69 mm SL; F. Eustomias schmidti, NPM 4882, 68 mm SL. Scale bars = 10 mm.