Author: Garman, 1899
Field Marks:
No anal fin, grooved dorsal fin spines, teeth with narrow cusps and cusplets in upper and lower jaws, uniform dark coloration except for white-tipped fins, short abdomen and short caudal peduncle, close-set denticles on body.
Diagnostic Features:
Body moderately stout and compressed. Preoral snout moderately long, about 2/3 of distance from mouth to pectoral origins; mouth very broadly arches, less than a third as long as wide. Second dorsal fin about as large as first; pectoral apices when laid back ending just anterior to first dorsal spine origin. Caudal peduncle short, distance from second dorsal insertion to upper caudal origin about as long as distance from eye to first gill slits. Lateral trunk denticles close-set, conical and with hooked cusps. Colour blackish except for white-tipped fins, no prominent black markings on underside of body and sides of tail. Size moderate, adults to about 50 cm.
Geographical Distribution:
Central Pacific: Hawaiian Islands. Eastern Pacific: southern California (USA), Panama, Cocos Islands, Columbia, Ecuador, northern and central Chile, Galapagos Islands.
Habitat and Biology:
A little-known deepwater dogfish of the eastern Pacific and Hawaiian continental and insular slopes, on or near the bottom at depths of 400 to 1143 m.
Size:
Maximum total length 50 cm, males adult at 35 to 39 cm, females to at least 50 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
None. In California incidentally caught in sablefish (Anoplopoma) traps, but not utilized.
Remarks:
This species has been confused with Etmopterus granulosus (Günther, 1880), and Centroscyllium granulatum (Günther, 1887), but is quite distinct.
Type material:
Holotype: Two specimens mentioned, 11 1/2 and 4 3/4 inches long, but no type designated; presumably the first of these specimens is the holotype). Type Locality: Two localities mentioned, 70° 9'30"N, 81°8'30"W, 999 m, and 6°30'N, 81° 44'W, 1016 m, both off Panama, without reference to specimens.