Gnathophamia — Peqtjegnat 
409 
postulated by some that this species and pos- 
sibly other species of Gnathophamia approach 
the bottom at sexual maturity, thus accounting 
for the difficulty in obtaining mature speci- 
mens with the traditional pelagic nets. It ap- 
pears, however, that this mature specimen was 
not near the bottom, having been taken at 
least 600 m from the bottom when captured 
with the midwater trawl during the early hours 
of the morning (from 0300 to 0831 hours). 
The minimum size for sexual maturity in 
this species is probably around 120 mm total 
length. Ortmann ( 1906) reports a female of 
119 mm total length with fully developed 
oostegites forming a marsupial pouch. This is 
the smallest known sexually mature female of 
this species. On the other hand, the large female 
of 145 mm total length from the Scripps col- 
lections did not possess a fully developed mar- 
supium. Apparently there is a range of size at 
which sexual maturity occurs, and it is a wide 
range in this species. 
Gnathophamia gracilis Willemoes-Suhm, 1875 
Fig. 6 
Gnathophamia hrevispinis Wood-Mason, 
1891.— Faxon, 1895 
dentata Faxon, 1893 
bidentata Illig, 1906 
A total of 128 specimens of Gnathophamia 
gracilis were identified from the Scripps 1950— 
53 collections: 64 females, 27 males, and 37 
juveniles, ranging in size from 22 mm to 115 
mm body length. Table 4 lists the individuals 
greater than 100 mm in body length. All 6 of 
these specimens are larger than the largest ones 
reported in previous literature. The nearly 250 
specimens of G. gracilis gathered on the Dana 
Expedition and reported by Fage ( 1941) range 
in size from 20 mm to 100 mm. The 3 largest 
Dana specimens (2 males and 1 female, each 
measuring 100 mm in body length) all came 
from the western Atlantic Ocean in the vicinity 
of the Caribbean Sea. 
The single specimen from the Challenger Ex- 
pedition described by Sars ( 1885) measured 41 
mm total length (including rostrum). The 2 
specimens from the Gulf of Bengal studied by 
Wood-Mason (1891) were immature and 
measured 83 mm and 92 mm total length. The 
John Murray Expedition collected 8 specimens 
from 22 to 78 mm in length. The Discovery 
Reports (Tattersall, 1955) list 3 specimens 
from 24 to 58 mm in size. 
Fage (1941) states that the size at which 
G. gracilis reaches sexual maturity is greater 
in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans than in the 
Pacific; in the latter, especially the eastern Pa- 
cific, there exists a relatively dwarf form of 
G. gracilis. He cites a small female of 52 mm 
taken in the Gulf of Panama on the Dana Ex- 
pedition with a completely developed marsu- 
pium containing embryos. Fage indicates that 
there is no evidence that the adults of G. gra- 
cilis abandon their pelagic life in order to ap- 
proach the bottom at the time of sexual matur- 
ity, and he shows that completely adult females 
were numerous at all levels in the pelagic fish- 
ings of the Dana. The smallest female adult 
TABLE 3 
Gnathopausia gig as 
Size and Location of Largest Specimens Captured 
LENGTH (mm) 
SEX 
STATION* 
DEPTH OF 
CAPTURE 
( meters ) 
APPROXIMATE 
LOCATION* 
Without 
Rostrum 
Rostrum 
Included 
142 
164 
M 
H51-355 
3400 
off Northern Calif. 
126 
145 
F 
H51-161 
2085 
off Baja California, Mex. 
110 
p 
F 
H51-90 
2213 
off Baja California, Mex. 
105 
127 
F 
H5 1-366 
2972 
off Alaska 
102 
125 
M 
H51-371 
4023-4389 
off British Columbia 
* See Table 1 for exact locations. 
