Abstract
The rare alepocephalid fish, Photostylus pycnopterus, was first described by Beebe (1933a) from asingle specimen which was caught off Bermuda. Subsequently, a total of 29 specimens (39.9-113.0mmSL) have been reported from the Atlantic, Pacificand Indian Oceans (Beebe, 1933b; Grey, 1958;Goodyear, 1969; Fourmanoir, 1970; Kashkin, 1975;Wisner, 1976; Parin et al., 1976; Paxton et al., 1990).During the cruise of RN Hakuho-Maru (KH-88-4) of Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, P.pycnopterus was collected in the water off CapeMuroto, Shikoku in the western North Pacific. Thisspecies is recorded for the first time from Japanesewaters and described here.
The specimen was fixed in 10% buffered sea water formalin immediately after collection for a half day and then preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. Vertebrae were counted by soft-X ray negatives. Measurements and counts followed the method described by Hubbs and Lagler (1958), except for the vertebrae which was counted according to Markle and Merrett (1980).
