View data on Catalog of Fishes here.
Escal appendage pattern B; esca of 16.5-mm specimen (that of the holotype badly damaged) with anterior appendage short and stout, not longer than escal bulb, bearing a fringe of filaments on lateral margin near base and a single unbranched filament on anterior margin; a stout forked medial escal appendage, more than three times length of escal bulb, bearing four or five short branches near base; left fork of medial appendage with two, relatively short branches; an unbranched finger-like posterior escal appendage shorter than escal bulb; lateral and anterolateral escal appendages absent.
Subopercle short and broad, without indentation on posterodorsal margin; length of ventral fork of opercle 24.2–24.7% SL; ratio of lengths of dorsal and ventral forks of opercle 0.37–0.45.
Epibranchial teeth absent; teeth present on pharyngobranchial II; total number of teeth in upper jaw 18–38, in lower jaw 31–44; number of teeth on vomer 6 or 7; dorsal-fin rays 5; anal-fin rays 4; pectoral-fin rays 15–17.
Measurements in percent of standard length: head length 40.8–45.4; head depth 33.3–42.2; premaxilla length 29.6–36.3; lower jaw length 46.3–51.5; illicium length 15.1–22.2.
A species of Oneirodes unique among its congeners in escal morphology.
Oneirodes macronema is known from only two specimens, one collected in the Caribbean Sea with 1000 m of wire, and the other from off Oahu, Hawaii, somewhere between the surface and 1000 m.
Probably meso- to bathypelagic.
Pietsch TW. 2009. Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea. Berkley: University of California Press. 638 p.
Although unknown, males of O. macronema are certainly free living and non-parasitic, as is the case with most oneirodid taxa.
Known from two metamorphosed females (16.5–27 mm).
Holotype of Oneirodes macronema: ZMUC P9282, 27 mm, DANA 1256(1), Caribbean Sea, 17°43'N, 64°56'W, 1000 m wire, 1920 hr, 4 March 1922.
