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Escal appendage pattern B; esca with anterior appendage strongly compressed, rounded in lateral view, darkly pigmented along distal margin in some specimens; a pair of filamentous medial appendages (so tiny in some specimens that careful observation is required); terminal papilla usually with two distal pigment spots situated on midline, one just behind the other; posterior appendage short, stout, and cylindrical in smaller specimens, laterally compressed in larger specimens; anterolateral appendages absent; escal pore especially large in larger specimens.
Subopercle short and broad, dorsal end tapering to a point, without indentation on posterodorsal margin; length of ventral fork of opercle 24.2–27.1% SL; ratio of lengths of dorsal and ventral forks of opercle 0.48–0.64. Upper fork of opercle supported by two or three bony ribs in some larger specimens (e.g., BSKU 29876, 138 mm; BSKU 33971, 149 mm).
Epibranchial teeth absent; teeth present on pharyngobranchial II; number of teeth in upper jaw 26–52, in lower jaw 36–50; number of teeth on vomer 4–10; dorsal-fin rays 5 or 6; anal-fin rays 4; pectoral-fin rays 14–17.
Measurements in percent of standard length: head length 32.2–39.5; head depth 34.2–41.5; premaxilla length 26.0–32.1; lower jaw length 33.2–45.3; illicium length 14.4–26.5.
A species of Oneirodes distinguished from all other members of the genus in escal morphology: anterior appendage short, laterally compressed, without pigmented internal tube; medial appendages present; posterior appendage short, simple, cylindrical to laterally compressed.
Oneirodes sabex is known only from Western Pacific, southeast Asian, New Zealand, and eastern Australian waters: the ALPHA HELIX material, including the holotype and 13 paratypes, was collected in the Halmahara and Banda seas; the 121-mm paratype (SIO 70-339) is from off Luzon, Philippines; the 32.5- and 39-mm paratypes (AMS I. 20315-010, AMS I.20314016) were collected off Sydney, Australia. Several of the ALPHA HELIX specimens were collected with an opening-closing trawl, three (12–26.5 mm) between 820–1000 m, two (13–15.5 mm) between 1000–1250, and one between 1250–1500 m. Of the remaining material, nine specimens were captured somewhere between the surface and 960 m, and three between the surface and 1800 m.
Meso- to bathypelagic.
Pietsch TW. 2009. Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea. Berkley: University of California Press. 638 p.
As with most oneirodid taxa, males of the genus Oneirodes are free-living and presumed non-parasitic.
Known from 24 metamorphosed females (12–189 mm).
ALPHA HELIX station 84, Banda Sea, 5°04.5'S, 130°12.0'E, 0–1500 m, 1400–2100 hr, 28 April 1975.
Holotype of Oneirodes sabex: LACM 36116-3, 46 mm.
