GARTNER ET AL.: LANTERNFISHES 



mingii, Notolychnns valdiviae) were relatively abun- 

 dant everywhere. Distributional affinities of six of 

 the eight mesopelagic species (the three preceding 

 species plus Diogenichthys atlanticus, Lampadena 

 luminosa, and Myctophum nitidulum) are tropical- 

 subtropical; the other two {Lampanyctus nobilis and 

 L. tenuiformis) are tropical (Backus et al. 1977). 

 These species represent 5% to 17% of the total 

 number of species from each region and between 

 9% and 38% of the total number of specimens ex- 

 amined (Wisner 1976 excluded). Thus, based on our 

 comparison with Clarke's (1973) Hawaiian mycto- 

 phid assemblage and the species lists from various 

 regions of the world ocean, our findings on the 

 eastern Gulf of Mexico myctophid fauna provide 

 additional support to the idea that oligotrophic low- 

 latitude mesopelagic habitats show considerable 

 structural and ecological uniformity allowing for 

 circumglobal distribution of a number of species, a 

 pattern similar to that demonstrated to an even 

 greater degree by bathypelagic fish species (Mar- 

 shall 1980). 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Shiptime was provided by the Florida Institute of 

 Oceanography and UNOLS (University-National 

 Oceanographic Laboratory System). We thank 

 Donald Wilson of the Office of Naval Research, 

 Naval Research Laboratory for arranging shiptime 

 on the RV Mizar. The research was funded by Na- 

 tional Science Foundation contracts DES 75-03845, 

 OCE 75-03845, and OCE 84-10787. The senior 

 author especially wishes to thank the Gulf Oceano- 

 graphic Charitable Trust for providing financial 

 assistance. We are grateful to the following Univer- 

 sity of South Florida Marine Science (USFMS) per- 

 sonnel: Denise Bombard for typing the tables, 

 Deborah Walton for preparation of the figures, and 

 David Williams for photographic layout. Finally, 

 thanks are extended to Mark Leiby, Florida Depart- 

 ment of Natural Resources, Bureau of Marine Re- 

 search; Jose Torres and Tom Lancraft, USFMS; and 

 the two anonymous reviewers for their critical 

 review of the manuscript. 



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