National Marine 
Fisheries Service 
NOAA 
Fishery Bulletin 
e established in 1881 «a 
Spencer F. Baird is 8 
First U.S. Commissioner 
of Fisheries and founder 
of Fishery Bulletin 
Abstract—Larvae of 6 species of Lam- 
panyctus (family Myctophidae) collected 
during the 34th cruise of RV Dmitry 
Mendeleev in 1985 in the central South 
Pacific Ocean (27—48°S) are described. 
Discussed in more detail are diagnostic 
characters for 4 of these species, whose 
morphology has been insufficiently 
studied: cripplefin lanternfish (L. achi- 
rus), southern lanternfish (L. australis), 
L. gibbsi or L. wisneri, and Lampanyctus 
sp. D. Additional data from larvae 
caught during the 16th cruise of RV 
Dmitry Mendeleev (in the southwest- 
ern Pacific Ocean) and 29th cruise 
of RV Akademik Ioffe (in the South 
Atlantic Ocean) are incorporated in 
the discussion. 
Manuscript submitted 5 November 2020. 
Manuscript accepted 28 June 2021. 
Fish. Bull. 119:112-122 (2021). 
Online publication date: 23 July 2021. 
doi: 10.7755/FB.119.2-3.2 
The views and opinions expressed or 
implied in this article are those of the 
author (or authors) and do not necessarily 
reflect the position of the National 
Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA. 
Morphology of larvae of 6 Lampanyctus species 
in the central South Pacific Ocean with notes on 
their occurrence 
Yana Yu. Bolshakova (contact author) 
Sergei A. Evseenko (deceased) 
Dmitry V. Bolshakov 
Email address for contact author: yanusrunaa@mail.ru 
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology 
Russian Academy of Sciences 
36 Nakhimovsky Prospekt 
Moscow 117997, Russia 
Lampanyctus is one of the most species- 
rich genera of the family Myctophi- 
dae and includes more than 40 spe- 
cies (Fricke et al., 2020). There are 2 
opinions about phylogenetic relation- 
ships within this genus based on both 
morphological and molecular data. 
One notion is that the genus Nanno- 
brachium is a junior synonym of Lam- 
panyctus (Becker, 1983; Moser and 
Ahlstrom, 1996; Olivar and Beckley, 
1997; Denton, 2014; Kobyliansky, 2016; 
Martin et al., 2018). The other opinion is 
that both genera, Nannobrachium and 
Lampanyctus, are valid (Zahuranec, 
2000). According to recent data (Martin 
et al., 2018), we consider the genus 
Lampanyctus sensu lato. Information 
of the larval development of Lampanyc- 
tus species is scarce. Descriptions of the 
early larval stages are available for only 
about half of the species (Taning, 1918; 
Pertseva-Ostroumova, 1964; Moser 
and Ahlstrom, 1974; Miller et al., 1979; 
Olivar, 1985; Moser and Ahlstrom, 
1996; Olivar and Beckley, 1997; Moser 
and Watson, 2001; Bolshakova and 
Evseenko, 2015, 2016, 2020). 
Adults of at least 15 species of Lam- 
panyctus have been found among Myc- 
tophidae collected in the western and 
central South Pacific Ocean (McGinnis, 
1982; Becker, 1983; Becker and Evseenko, 
1986; Zahuranec, 2000). Individuals of 
5 of those species were caught during 
a complex expedition to the South 
Pacific Ocean in 1985, the 34th voyage 
of RV Dmitry Mendeleev (Becker and 
Evseenko, 1986). The collections made 
during this cruise include adults of the 
following 5 species: cripplefin lantern- 
fish (L. achirus), southern lanternfish 
(L. australis), diamondcheek lantern- 
fish (L. intricarius), rakery beaconlamp 
(L. macdonaldi), and pygmy lantern- 
fish (L. pusillus). Here, we describe the 
morphology of larvae of the 6 lantern- 
fish species found in open waters of the 
central South Pacific Ocean: L. achi- 
rus, L. australis, L. gibbsi or L. wisneri, 
Lampanyctus sp. D, L. intricarius, and 
L. pusillus. The morphology of all but 
the last 2 of these species has been 
insufficiently studied. These descrip- 
tions are the first ones of Lampanyctus 
larvae from this area and supplement 
the available data on the development 
of Lampanyctus species. 
Materials and methods 
Fish in early developmental stages 
sampled during the 34th expedition 
of RV Dmitry Mendeleev served as 
materials for the work in this study 
