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On the integument and photophores of the alepocephalid fishes Xenodermichthys and Photostylus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

A. C. G. Best  and
Q. Bone
A. C. G. Best
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association Citadel Hill, Plymouth
Q. Bone
Affiliation:
The Laboratory, Marine Biological Association Citadel Hill, Plymouth
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Abstract

The mesopelagic alepocephalid fishes Xenodermichthys and Photostylus have unusual compartmented sub-dermal spaces filled with a fluid more dilute than sea water. The fluid is probably lymph, and contributes to the low density of the fish. The external layer superficial to these subdermal spaces consists of cells containing large intracellular paracrystals which form tubular arrays. This external layer is interrupted by numerous photophores (in Photostylus borne on stalks) which have a reddish-violet central core, and are backed by a reflecting layer. The reflector does not contain guanine, it is made up of a series of flattened cells, and reflects blue-green light. The cells of the central core are assumed to be photocytes and are in connexion with apparent nerve terminals, but in neither fish has luminescence of the photophores been observed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , February 1976 , pp. 227 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1976

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