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Dorsal-fin rays 10–11; anal-fin rays 14–15; pectoral-fin rays10–11; total gill rakers 7–9; vertebrae 29 (rarely 30). Small species, seldom exceeds 40 mm SL; trunk long and narrow, its length usually longer than depth; dorsal fin long, its length more than 1.3 times the length of dorsal spine; abdominal length along midline from supra-anal photophore to caudal peduncle, less than or equal to body depth at end of dorsal; postabdominal and anal pterygiophore spines long; posterior anal pterygiophores extend behind and at same level of anal photophore group; supra-anal photophore raised above anals one half or less the distance to midline; body margin extends slightly in front of anal photophores before curving ventrally; jaws medium; teeth small; gill-raker tooth plates consist of multiple low spiny ridges; anterior dorsal surface of tongue between branchial arches smooth; few-to-no raised nodules; in preservative, pigment very dark over whole of body; pigment extends in broad band at base of caudal fin rays.
Differs from both S. diaphana and S. pseudobscura in its shorter dorsal spine and longer dorsal fin; longer, narrower trunk, slight extension of body margin in front of anal photophores, broad pigment band on base of caudal rays, and generally dark pigment; differs from S. pseudobscura in its larger supra-anal photophore, small teeth, low gill-raker tooth plates, and smaller mouth; from S. diaphana in its extension of the ventral body margin at same level behind anal photophores.
This species has not been recorded from the Atlantic; it is concentrated north of 10°S latitude in the Indian Ocean, although small catches occur as far as 40°S; occurs in the eastern Bay of Bengal, and abundantly south of Java; occurs off the Philippines and scattered but large catches indicate in all probability a continuous distribution across the equatorial Pacific; occurs abundantly in the tropical east Pacific from California to the Chile-Peru Border.
Depth data is spotty and no depth rate plot was made, however, data indicates a depth range of 650 m to a t least 1000 m; tropical Pacific maximum net depth figures concur in general with this range.
Baird RC. 1971. The Systematics, Distribution, and Zoogeography of the Marine Hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zooology 142(1):1–128.
Baird RC. 1971. The Systematics, Distribution, and Zoogeography of the Marine Hatchetfishes (family Sternoptychidae). Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zooology 142(1):1–128.
Rarely exceed 40 mm SL.
South of Coiba Island, (Pacific) Panama [Eastern Pacific], 6°17'N, 82°05'W.
Lectotype: USNM 177888.
