Bellottia apoda

distribution

Distribution. Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean; depth range 30 – 569 m.

A checklist of the deep sea fishes of the Levant Sea, Mediterranean Sea

materials_examined

This species occurs off the Azores, in the PECS area (Great Meteor Tablemount), SDSC, No. 23047, 28.4966 º W, 29.8366 º N, 18 Jul. 1967.

Updated checklist of marine fishes (Chordata: Craniata) from Portugal and the proposed extension of the Portuguese continental shelf

biology_ecology

Biology. All specimens have been caught on or near the bottom. The type material was trawled at 30 m on Posidonia - bottom and all specimens since then at depths of 150 – 569 m. This is a viviparous genus in which the male transfers the spermatozoans packed in spermatophores into the female (Nielsen et al. 1968: 245). A 38 mm specimen (ZMUC P 771651) contained eggs up to 1 mm in diameter; embryos were not observed. Gramitto & Coen (1997: 170) observed embryos ready to hatch of 5 mm total length. According to Gramitto & Coen (1997: 168), the stomach contents from 23 Adriatic specimens showed that the diet consisted of pelagic and benthic crustaceans with copepods as the most important prey.

Atlantic occurrence of the genus Bellottia (Teleostei, Bythitidae) with two new species from the Western North Atlantic

description

Description. The principal meristic and morphometric characters are shown in Table 1. Nielsen & Møller (2008, table 3) used the same set of characters as in the present paper based on 13 specimens three of which they examined while the characters of the rest were taken from the literature. For comparative reasons we have here only included characters from the 16 specimens examined by us.

Atlantic occurrence of the genus Bellottia (Teleostei, Bythitidae) with two new species from the Western North Atlantic