Early ontogeny of a South Pacific gonostomatid fish Sigmops longipinnis

 During the R/V Hakuho-maru Cruise KH-95-2, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, from Tokyo, Japan to the South Pacific east of Australia (22° N–30° S; 126° E–176° E) from June to September, 1995, 77 unidentified gonostomatid larvae (5.5–20.0 mm SL) were collected south of 20° S with an IKMT net. They subsequently were identified as Sigmops longipinnis (Mukhacheva), and its ontogeny during the latter part of the larval stage (body form and proportions, photophores, pigmentation, and meristics) is described here. The larvae develop a species-specific row of melanophores along the midlateral line anterior to the caudal peduncle and another along the middorsal line from before the dorsal fin to just before the caudal fin.