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A deepsea coffinfish
Chaunacops melanostomus (Caruso, 1989)
A 7 cm female (upper) and a 6 cm male C. melanostomus trawled at a depth between 1460 m and 1700 m, off north-west Cape, Western Australia, January 1991 (AMS I.31151-004). These specimens were identified by Dr J. Caruso during his visit to the Australian Museum in May 2002. View larger image.
Heads of the male (left) and female C. melanostomus in the upper image. Note the black mouth lining. In the larger image the illicia are arrowed.
C. melanostomus has a flabby body and long tail that are both covered with small spines. It has a black mouth lining and an illicium on the snout that can be lowered into a groove.
This species grows to at least 10 cm in length.
C. melanostomus has been trawled in the Central to Eastern Indian Ocean at depths ranging from 1320 m to 1760 m.
The name melanostomus comes from the Greek melanos meaning black and stoma meaning mouth.
There are two genera in the family Chaunacidae; Chaunacops and Chaunax. Chaunacops differs from Chaunax by having a lower lateral line count, longer ilicium, a wider head, more widely spaced body spines and several skeletal characters.
Further reading
- Bertelsen, E in Paxton, J.R. & W.N. Eschmeyer (Eds). 1994. Encyclopedia of Fishes. Sydney: New South Wales University Press; San Diego: Academic Press [1995]. Pp. 240.
- Caruso, J.H. 1989. A review of the Indo-Pacific members of the deep-water chaunacid anglerfish genus Bathychaunax, with the description of a new species from the eastern Indian Ocean (Pisces: Lophiiformes). Bulletin of Marine Science. 45:574-579.
- Caruso, J.H., Ho, H-C. & T.W. Pietsch. 2006. Chaunacops Garman, 1899, a senior objective synonym of Bathychaunax Caruso, 1989 (Lophiiformes: Chaunacoidei: Chaunacidae). Copeia. 1: 120-121.
