Lanternfishes of the genus Diaphus collected during cruises ESSCHA, NECTAlis 3-5, PUFFAlis and WALLAlis of R.V. Alis in the tropical southwestern Pacific
Citation
Borsa P, Millet L, Vourey É (2022). Lanternfishes of the genus Diaphus collected during cruises ESSCHA, NECTAlis 3-5, PUFFAlis and WALLAlis of R.V. Alis in the tropical southwestern Pacific. Version 1.1. Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15470/ek0u3y accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-04-26.Description
The present study contribute to update the know checklist of the Lanternfishes species of the genus Diaphus occurring in the tropical southwestern Pacific, based on material collected from six recent oceanographic cruises of R. V. Alis in the Coral Sea, the Fiji Basin and the Wallis-and-Futuna EEZ. Diaphus spp. samples were obtained using pelagic trawlnets. Twenty different species from the Diaphus were identified. Specimens morphologically closest to D. termophilus and belonging to a possibly undescribed species were also sampled from the Wallis-and-Futuna waters, highlighting persisting gaps in our knowledge of this ecologically important group of fishes. Our collection of specimens, all preserved for DNA extraction, will be useful to complementing the current Diaphus barcode database for the tropical southwestern Pacific.Sampling Description
Study Extent
Lanternfish specimens were collected during six oceanographic cruises of RV Alis in the tropical southwestern Pacific between 2014 and 2018; namely, cruises ESSCHA, NECTAlis 3, NECTAlis 4, NECTAlis 5 and PUFFAlis in the New Caledonian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), spanning the eastern Coral Sea and the western South Fiji Basin; and cruise WALLAlis in the Wallis and Futuna EEZ.Sampling
We performed a preliminary bibliographic search on Diaphus spp. occurrence in the tropical southwestern Pacific in the Web of ScienceTM (WoS) (www.webofscience.com/wos/; Clarivate Analytics, Philadelphia) using the WoS's 'All Databases' library and the following combination of 'Topic'–category keywords and Boolean operators: 'Diaphus' and ['Coral Sea' or 'Fiji' or ('Vanuatu' or 'New Hebrides') or 'Tonga' or 'Wallis' or ('southwest*' and 'Pacific')] returned eight references, five of which were geographically irrelevant. The three relevant references (Suthers, 1996; Rissik and Suthers, 2000; Flynn and Paxton, 2012) exclusively concerned the Coral Sea and contributed to building table 1. Additional references were gathered from searches on the Google Scholar web search engine (https://scholar.google.com/) using the keyword combination ('checklist', 'Diaphus') with 'Coral Sea', 'New Caledonia', 'Tonga', or 'Wallis'. Table 1 shows the final Diaphus spp. checklist in the tropical southwestern Pacific, thus obtained from the literature (as of 31 May 2022. In addition, the Global biodiversity information facility database (GBIF, 2022) was searched for Diaphus spp. occurrences using the 'preserved specimen' filter. The searched geographic area was the quadrilateral delimited by latitudes 10 ºS–30 ºS and longitudes 150 ºE–185 ºE, corresponding roughly to the tropical southwestern Pacific as defined by Spalding et al. (2007) and including all three regions sampled for the present survey (see next sub–section). The distribution range of a species was deduced from the corresponding point map in the GBIF database (GBIF, 2022).Quality Control
Methods for meristic count and morphological measurement, photophore and orbital luminous tissue definitions and nomenclature followed Nafpaktitis (1968). Lanternfish specimens that were assigned to the genus Diaphus had the following characteristics (Hulley, 1984; Paxton and Hulley, 1999): secondary photophores absent; no photophore far above lateral line near dorsal profile; dorsal (Dn) and ventral (Vn) nasal luminous organs present; pectoral organ no. 4 (PO4) elevated; ventral luminous organs (VO2–3) elevated; four precaudal luminous organs (Prc); no supra– or infra–caudal luminous organ present. Species in the genus Diaphus can be assigned to one of two distinct groups, the Diaphus fulgens and Diaphus theta species complexes, based on, respectively, the presence or absence of a suborbital luminous organ (So) and an inner series of broad–based, forward–hooked teeth on the posterior part of the premaxillary eminence (Nafpaktitis et al., 1995). For further identification to species level, we used the identification keys of Wisner (1974), Kawaguchi and Shimizu (1978), Nafpaktitis (1978) and Paxton and Hulley (1999).Method steps
- Lanternfishes were captured in midwater micronekton trawls with vertical and horizontal openings, both 10 meters wide, and a codend of 10–mm mesh. The trawl was towed horizontally for 30 min at 3–4 knots to target micronekton aggregations detected using an EK60V echosounder (Simrad Kongsberg Maritime AS, Horten). During each towing operation, the opening of the trawl was monitored using attached sensors (Scanmar, Åsgårdstrand) and the vessel speed was adjusted accordingly.
Taxonomic Coverages
-
Chordatarank: phylum
-
Actinopterygiirank: class
-
Myctophiformesrank: order
-
Myctophidaerank: family
-
Lampanyctinaerank: subfamily
-
Diaphus anderseni Tåning, 1932rank: species
-
Diaphus brachycephalus Tåning, 1928rank: species
-
Diaphus diademophilus Nafpaktitis, 1978rank: species
-
Diaphus effulgens (Goode and Bean, 1896)rank: species
-
Diaphus fragilis Tåning, 1928rank: species
-
Diaphus garmani Gilbert, 1906rank: species
-
Diaphus jenseni Tåning, 1932rank: species
-
Diaphus lucidus (Goode and Bean, 1896)rank: species
-
Diaphus luetkeni (Brauer, 1904)rank: species
-
Diaphus malayanus Weber, 1913rank: species
-
Diaphus mollis Tåning, 1928rank: species
-
Diaphus parri Tåning, 1932rank: species
-
Diaphus perspicillatus (Ogilby, 1898)rank: species
-
Diaphus phillipsi Fowler, 1934rank: species
-
Diaphus regani Tåning, 1932rank: species
-
Diaphus signatus Gilbert, 1908rank: species
-
Diaphus splendidus (Brauer, 1904)rank: species
-
Diaphus suborbitalis Weber, 1913rank: species
-
Diaphus termophilus Tåning, 1928rank: species
-
Diaphus cf. termophilusrank: species
-
Diaphus thiollierei Fowler, 1934rank: species
Geographic Coverages
Six oceanographic cruises of RV Alis in the tropical southwestern Pacific between 2014 and 2018; namely, cruises ESSCHA, NECTAlis 3, NECTAlis 4, NECTAlis 5 and PUFFAlis in the New Caledonian exclusive economic zone (EEZ), spanning the eastern Coral Sea and the western South Fiji Basin; and cruise WALLAlis in the Wallis and Futuna EEZ.
Bibliographic Citations
- Borsa, P., Millet, L., Vourey, É., 2022. Lanternfishes of the genus Diaphus collected during cruises ESSCHA, NECTAlis 3–5, PUFFAlis and WALLAlis of RV Alis in the tropical southwestern Pacific. Arxius de Miscel·lània Zoològica, 20: 83–101, Doi: https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2022.20.0083 - https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2022.20.0083
Contacts
P. Borsaoriginator
Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Nouméa
NC
email: philippe.borsa@ird.fr
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-8304
L. Millet
originator
Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Nouméa
NC
É Vourey
originator
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
Nouméa
NC
P. Borsa
metadata author
Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Nouméa
NC
email: philippe.borsa@ird.fr
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-8304
Montse Ferrer
user
email: montseferrerf@gmail.com
P. Borsa
administrative point of contact
Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Nouméa
NC
email: philippe.borsa@ird.fr
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-8304
L. Millet
administrative point of contact
Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD)
Nouméa
NC
É Vourey
administrative point of contact
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
Nouméa
NC