Bigeye Lightfish, Woodsia nonsuchae (Beebe 1932)
Illustration of the holotype of the Bigeye Lightfish, Woodsia nonsuchae. Source: After Beebe (1932) Zoologica, New York Zoological Society 13(4):61 / Biodiversity Heritage Library. License: CC BY Attribution
Summary:
A somewhat long, slender lightfish with Top of head blackish; suborbital area, cheek, and opercle silvery with fine speckling of melanophores; scale pockets dark; subdermal pigmentation between photophore series uniformly dark, otherwise pale with dotting of melanophores; base of adipose fin weakly pigmented; mouth dark except pale oral sides of jaws and ventral base of tongue; gill cavity dark; gill arches unpigmented.
Cite this page as:
Bray, D.J. 2025, Woodsia nonsuchae in Fishes of Australia, accessed 23 Apr 2025, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/Home/species/3404
Bigeye Lightfish, Woodsia nonsuchae (Beebe 1932)
More Info
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Distribution |
Off Tuggerah Lake, New South Wales; also off Norfolk Island in the Tasman Sea. Elsewhere the species is widespread in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans - including New Caledonia. Adults are mesopelagic to bathypelagic; larvae are epipelagic. |
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Features |
Dorsal fin 11-12; Anal fin 14-16; Gill rakers 3 (deveoped rakers); Vertebrae 42-45. Branchiostegal rays 17; Suborbital photophores 2. Body depth 5.0-7.4 times in SL; anal fin origin behind end of dorsal fin; photophores conspicuous; developed gill rakers restricted to angle of gill arch, pseudobranch absent. Light organs: VAV series 11-12; preanal part of OA series linear. |
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Size |
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Colour |
Top of head blackish; suborbital area, cheek, and opercle silvery with fine speckling of melanophores; scale pockets dark; subdermal pigmentation between photophore series uniformly dark, otherwise pale with dotting of melanophores; base of adipose fin weakly pigmented; mouth dark except pale oral sides of jaws and ventral base of tongue; gill cavity dark; gill arches unpigmented. |
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Etymology |
The species is named after the type locality: Nonsuch Island, Bermuda. |
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Species Citation |
Photichthys nonsuchae Beebe 1932, Zoologica (New York) 13: 61, fig. 11. Type locality: 7 miles south-southwest of Nonsuch Island, Bermuda, depth 600 fathoms. |
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Author |
Bray, D.J. 2025 |
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Resources |
Bigeye Lightfish, Woodsia nonsuchae (Beebe 1932)
References
Beebe, W. 1932. Nineteen new species and four post-larval deepsea fish. Zoologica (New York) 13: 47-107 figs 1-31
Grey, M. 1959. Three new genera and one new species of the family Gonostomatidae. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 121(4): 167-184 figs 1-3
Harold, A.S. 1999. Families Gonostomatidae, Sternoptychidae, Phosichthyidae, Astronesthidae, Stomiidae, Chauliodontidae, Melanostomiidae, Idiacanthidae, Malacosteidae. pp. 1896-1917 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 3 pp. 1397-2068.
Harold, A. & Milligan, R. 2019. Woodsia nonsuchae. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019: e.T60486567A60811670. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2019-2.RLTS.T60486567A60811670.en. Accessed on 11 December 2024.
Masuda, H., Amaoka, K., Araga, C., Uyeno, T. & Yoshino, T. (eds) 1984. The Fishes of the Japanese Archipelago. Tokyo : Tokai University Press Vol. 1–2 437 pp. 247 figs 370 pls.
Olivar, M.P. & Beckley, L.E. 2022. Latitudinal variation in diversity and abundance of mesopelagic fishes associated with change in oceanographic variables along 110°E, south-east Indian Ocean. Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography 198 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2022.105053
Olivar, M.P. & Beckley, L.E. 2022. Vertical distribution patterns of early stages of mesopelagic fishes along 110°E, south-east Indian Ocean. Deep Sea Research II: 105111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsr2.2022.105111
Prokofiev, A.M., Rajakrishnan, R. & Cubelio, S.S. 2025. Morphological variation and worldwide distribution of the lightfish genus Woodsia Grey, 1959 (Teleostei: Stomiiformes: Phosichthyidae). Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation 43: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15073452
Smith, W.L., Girard, M.G., Walker Jr., H.J. & Davis, M.P. 2024. The phylogeny of bristlemouths, lightfishes, and portholefishes with a revised family-level classification of the dragonfishes (Teleostei: Stomiiformes), pp. 167-184 in Leis, J.M., Watson, W., Mundy, B.C. & Konstantinidis, P. Early life history and biology of marine fishes: Research inspired by the work of H Geoffrey Moser. NOAA Prof. Paper NMFS 24, 286 pp.
Watson, W. 1996. Phosichthyidae: lightfishes. pp. 284-293 in Moser, H.G. (ed.) The early stages of fishes in the California Current Region. California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) Atlas No. 33. Lawrence, Kansas : Allen Press, Inc., 1505 pp.
