BERTELSEN: CERATIOIDEI 



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Fig. 168. Ceratioid larvae. (A-B) Gigantactinidae. (A) Gigantactis sp., female, 8.5 mm; (B) Rhynchactis leplonema. female, 7.2 mm; (C-E) 

 Ceratiidae; (C) Cryptopsaras couesi. female, 5.0 mm; (D) Cryplopsaras couesi. male, 5.0 mm; (E) Ceratias holboetli. 7.6 mm; (F) Centrophrynidae, 

 Centrophryne spinulosa. male, 7.2 mm. (All from Bertelsen. 1951.) 



ceratioid larvae, on the tip of the snout, just above the upper 

 jaw. 



Barbels. — In Linophryne. the only ceratioid genus in which the 

 metamorphosed females have a hyoid barbel, a rudiment of this 

 is present as an opaque, wart-like thickenmg of the skin in female 

 larvae of more than about 10 mm SL (Fig. 167C). 



The larvae of both sexes of the single known species of the 

 family Centrophrynidae differ from all other ceratioid larvae in 

 having a digitiform, hyoid barbel (Fig. 168F). The barbel re- 

 mains digitiform in the metamorphic males, but after meta- 

 morphosis it is in both sexes reduced to a low papilla which 

 gradually disappears in females larger than about 50 mm. 



Spines. — Both male and female larvae of the Linophryne sub- 

 genus Linophryne and the linophrynid genus Borophryne differ 

 from all other ceratioid larvae in having well-developed, pointed 

 sphenotic spines (Fig. 167E, G). None of the other spines (pre- 

 opercular, quadrate, articular, etc.) of the head skeleton char- 

 acteristic of females of different genera is developed before 

 larval metamorphosis. 



Relationships 



Current principal hypotheses.— Thai the Ceratioidei represent a 

 monophyletic line appears most clearly from the fact that they 

 all differ from other Lophiiformes in having developed an ex- 

 treme and unique sexual dimorphism in which the males are 



