Blueband Hagfish

Diagnosis: 161–199 total slime pores, trunk length 63.5–68.3% TL, tail length 10.9–14.0% TL, slime glands not visible under skin, body colour pale with clear lateral blue band, margin of cloaca and at least some slime pore rims blackish; differs from N. biniplicata by its trunk length (63.5–68.3 versus 55.6–61.2% TL), tail length (10.9–14.0 versus 14.4–19.3% TL), slime glands aspect (not visible under skin versus visible under the skin like a series of beads), body colour (pale with clear lateral blue band versus pink-grey), margin of cloaca colour (blackish versus whitish), and slime pores rim colour (at least some blackish versus same colour as surrounding tissues) (Ref. 115309).Description: 2/2 multicusp pattern; anterior unicusps, 6 (5–7); posterior unicusps, 6; left side cusps, 16 (15–17); prebranchial pores, 40 (37–48); trunk pores, 116 (102–133); tail pores, 18 (16–21); total pores, 174 (161–199); 7 pairs of gill pouches (6 for 1 paratype) and a single pair of gill apertures, the left aperture being confluent with the pharyngocutaneous duct; morphometrics as percentage of TL; prebranchial length, 21.9% (20.4–24.7%); trunk length, 64.4% (63.5–68.3%); tail length, 13.3% (10.9–14.0%); greatest body depth including ventral finfold, 3.6% (3.5–5.2%); greatest body depth excluding ventral finfold, 3.3% (3.1–4.7%); depth at gill aperture, 2.8% (2.7–4.3%); depth at cloaca, 2.6% (2.8–3.8%); tail depth, 2.5% (1.9–2.9%); body eel-like, elongate, slender, cylindrical, circular anteriorly, becoming compressed posteriorly; rostrum bluntly rounded; 2 bilaterally symmetrical nasalsinus papillae in the dorsal surface of the nasal sinus; eyespots absent; 3 pairs of barbels on head, 1st 2 subequal in size 1.1% TL (0.7–0.9% TL), 3rd one longer 1.2% TL (1.0–1.5% TL) and adjacent to oral cavity; ventral finfold starting in the vicinity of the gill aperture (22.3% TL, 20.6–24.1% TL) and extending to the cloaca, with length 63.3% TL (63.3–68.0% TL) and depth 1.7 mm (1.2–3.0 mm); a pair of ventrolateral branchial finfolds starting at 17.5% TL (14.1–19.2% TL) anteriorly and extending posteriorly to the gill apertures, with length 5.8% TL (5.0–10.4% TL) and depth 1.2 mm (0.5–2.4 mm); caudal finfold rounded, equally developed ventrally and dorsally, beginning immediately posterior to edge of cloaca, extending around tail to dorsal surface, ending just after the tail tip; slime glands not visible under the skin; dental muscle reaching the 1st gill pouch (counting from head), with length 9.6% TL (11.5–13.9% TL); ventral aorta not branching (Ref. 115309).Colour: head and body pinkish to pale yellow to grey, with a pale light blue mid-flank band; the blue band still visible in preservative; barbels pale yellow to creamy white; cloaca and tail margins dusky blue-grey; some, often most, slime pores with a halo of dusky black contrasting against the rest of the body (Ref. 115309).

Found at depths of 97–1198 on mud to coarse sand bottoms, but is more common below 500 m (Ref. 115309).

Observed actively hunting a live red bandfish Cepola haastii (Ref. 115309).

fisheries:

Neomyxine caesiovitta, the blueband hagfish, is a species of hagfish endemic to New Zealand. This species can reach a length of 64.8 centimetres (25.5 in) SL.