Revision of a deep-sea stargazer genusPleuroscopus

Occurrence of Pleuroscopus pseudodorsalis Barnard, 1927 (Uranoscopidae) near Rio Grande Plateau, western South Atlantic

“… Distribution of Pleuroscopus pseudodorsalis , the present record; •, previous records from the literature (modified from Kishimoto et al , 1988). …”

“…Off southern Africa, it is known from the Walvis Ridge and off Namibia in the south‐eastern Atlantic to the Madagascar Ridge in the south‐western Indian Ocean. It is widespread off southern Australia from the south‐western corner of Western Australia to northern New South Wales and off New Zealand and the Norfolk Island Ridge (Lloris, 1986; May & Maxwell, 1986; Kishimoto et al , 1988; Bianchi et al , 1999; Paulin et al , 2001; Fig. 1).…”

“…1). The species was first described from a 300 mm total length ( L T ) specimen, trawled at a depth of c. 370 m near Table Bay, off the west coast of South Africa, and has been subsequently redescribed by Kishimoto et al (1988), based on 16 African and 37 Australasian specimens, ranging from 242 to 559 mm standard length ( L S ).…”

“…2. Kishimoto et al (1988) described juveniles as having a dark blue dorsal surface with numerous black spots that are regular in shape and smaller than the eye, the ventral half of the body uniformly white or grey, and the pelvic fins pale. In contrast, the adults have a greyish‐pink or purple dorsal surface with darker, indistinct blotches that are larger than the eye.…”

“…The fishing gear used in this case and the depth of capture, however, are unusual. Most of the known specimens of P. pseudodorsalis have been collected by bottom trawlers, usually at depths between 200 and 800 m (Kishimoto et al , 1988). The specimen reported here was collected by longline fishing between 40 and 100 m depth.…”