Author: Chan, 1966
Field Marks:
Two spined dorsal fins, no anal fin, bladelike unicuspidate teeth in lower jaw and upper teeth with a cuso and 4 or 5 pairs of cusplets.
Diagnostic Fentures:
A moderately slender-bodied lanternshark with a long tail, distance from pelvic insertions to ventral caudal origin about as long as head, about 1.2 times in distance between pectoral and pelvic bases, and 1.2 times interdorsal space; distance between pectoral and pelvic bases moderately long in adults, about 1.2 times head length; distance from snout tip to first dorsal spine slightly greater than distance from first dorsal spine to second dorsal insertion. Head width about 1.4 times preoral snout; prespiracular length about 1.4 times distance from spiracles to pectoral origins; gill openings very short, about as wide as spiracle, 1/3 eye length or less; upper teeth with 4 or 5 pairs of cusplets. Origin of first dorsal fin slightly behind free rear tips of pectoral fins, first dorsal base considerably closer to pectoral bases than pelvics; interdorsal space short, about as long as distance from snout tip to third gill slit; second dorsal fin much larcer than first and about twice its area; distance between second dorsal base and upper caudal origin about 1.5 in interdorsal space; caudal fin moderately long and fairly broad, length of dorsal caudal margin almost equal to head length. Lateral trunk denticles with very slender, hooked conical crowns, wide-spaced but not arranged in regular longitudinal rows; snout largely covered with denticles; no rows of greatly enlarged denticles on flanks above pectoral fins. Distal margins of fins largely covered with skin, not fringed with naked ceratotrichia. Colour brown above, with underside of snout and abdomen abruptly black, with an elongated narrow black mark running above, in front, and behind pelvic fins, and other elongated black marks at caudal fin base and along its axis.
Geographical Distribution:
Western North Pacific: China, south of Hainan Island.
Habitat and Biology:
A little-known lanternshark taken off Hainan Island, China, on or near the bottom in 512 to 692 m.
Size:
The only known specimen is an adult male at 29 cm total length.
Interest to Fisheries: None at present.
Type material:
Holotype: British Museum (Natural History), BMNH 1965.8.11.7, 292 mm adult male. Type Locality: South of Cape Bastion, Hainan Island, China, 16° 40.5'N, 109°49.9'E, 512 to 692 m.