• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.424-429
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• 2019

Two juvenile (9.48 and 10.11 mm in standard length) specimens of the lanternfish Notoscopelus japonicus, belonging to the family Myctophidae, were collected from the waters around Busan and Jeju Island in February 2017. This species is characterized by having melanophores along the dorsal side of the body and one photophore (PO5) in front of the pelvic fin. It is distinguished from Benthosema pterotum in having many melanophores on the dorsal side and a single photophore (PO5) on the trunk. N. japonicus is also distinguished from its congeneric N. resplendens and N. caudispinosus in having no melanophores at the base of the anal fin. Analyzing 521 base pairs of the 16S rRNA sequence, the specimens were identical to N. japonicus adults from Japan (K2P distance <0.004). This is the first record of N. japonicus in Korea, and we propose a new Korean name "Deung-jum-saet-bi-neul-chi" for this species.