Ceratiidae
Encyclopedia : C : CE : CER : Ceratiidae
Sea devils are a family, Ceratiidae, of deep-sea anglerfishes.["Ceratiidae"]. FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
The scientific name is from Greek keras meaning "horn", and refers to the bioluminescent lure that project's from the fish's forehead.
They are among the most widespread of the anglerfishes, being found in all oceans, from tropical to Antarctic. They are large, elongate anglerfishes: females of the largest species, Krøyer's deep sea angler fish, Ceratias holboelli, reach 1.2 m in length. The males, by contrast, are dwarfed, reaching 14 cm. As in other anglerfishes, spend much of their lives parasitically attached to the females, but they have a free-living adolescent stage in which they are very small (at most 1.3 cm), and have sharp, beak-like, toothless jaws.
Species
There are four species in two genera:- Genus Ceratias
- * Krøyer's deep sea angler fish, Ceratias holboelli Krøyer, 1845.
- * Ceratias tentaculatus (Norman, 1930).
- * Ceratias uranoscopus Murray, 1877.
- Genus Cryptopsaras
- * Triplewart seadevil, Cryptopsaras couesii Gill, 1883.
References
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