Triphoturus mexicanus

Triphoturus mexicanus (Gilbert, 1890).

Mexican Lampfish. To 9 cm (3.5 in) SL (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California). British Columbia (Gillespie 1993) to off southern Mexico (Rodríguez-Graña et al. 2004), including Gulf of California (De La Cruz-Agüero and Galván-Magaña 1992). Depth: surface to perhaps 2,882 m (9,453 ft) (min.: Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California; max.: Personal communication: Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Fish Collection, Los Angeles, California). Maximum depth poorly known, most captures appear to be in 1,000 m (3,280 ft) or less. Deeper records, such as 4,100 m (13,448 ft) (Personal communication: Scripps Institution of Oceanography Fish Collection, La Jolla, California), are based on the maximum depth fished by a midwater trawl and may represent a catch shallower than the maximum depth. Triphoturus oculeus (Garman 1899) has been considered to be synonymous with Triphoturus mexicanus Gilbert, 1890. However, on the basis of both DNA and larvae characters Rodríquez-Graña et al. (2004) separated the two species. Triphoturus oculeus is found from 13°N to 35°S.