Double angler

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Double anglers
Two-rod anglerfish, Diceratias bispinosus
Two-rod anglerfish, Diceratias bispinosus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Lophiiformes
Family: Diceratiidae
Genera

Bufoceratias
Diceratias
See text for species.

Double anglers are a family, Diceratiidae, of anglerfishes. They are found in deep, lightless waters of the Atlantic, Indian and western Pacific Oceans.[1]

They are easily distinguished from other anglerfishes by their possession of a second light-bearing dorsal fin spine immediately behind the illicium (the bioluminescent lure present in other anglerfishes).

As in other anglerfishes, males are very much smaller than the females and, after a larval and adolescent free-living stage, spend the rest of their life parasitically attached to a female.

Species in this family are known almost entirely from adolescent females: only two larvae, one adult female, and one adult male have been found.[2]

[edit] Species

There are six species in two genera:

  • Genus Bufoceratias
    • Bufoceratias shaoi Pietsch, Ho & Chen, 2004.
    • Bufoceratias thele (Uwate, 1979).
    • Bufoceratias wedli (Pietschmann, 1926).
  • Genus Diceratias
    • Two-rod anglerfish, Diceratias bispinosus (Günther, 1887).
    • Diceratias pileatus Uwate, 1979.
    • Diceratias trilobus Balushkin & Fedorov, 1986.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Diceratiidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
  2. ^ Theodore W. Pietsch (2005). Diceratiidae. Tree of Life web project. Retrieved on 4 April 2006.