Lampanyctodes hectoris (Günther, 1876)

Open encyclopedia reference

Hector's lanternfish (Lampanyctodes hectoris) is a lanternfish in the family Myctophidae, the only species in the genus Lampanyctodes. It is named after James Hector. It is a widespread marine fish, known from shallow tropical waters in the south-eastern Atlantic, from the western Pacific off Australia and New Zealand, and from the eastern Pacific off Chile. It is one of the few species of lanternfishes to inhabit shallow waters, and in those waters it is one of the most abundant species of fish, and central to the food chain of the upper continental slope. The abundance is due to its high fecundity — it spawns multiple times in the winter so that the fry can take advantage of the spring bloom of krill. It grows up to 73 millimetres (2.9 in) standard length (SL) and may reach the age of 3 years. It reaches sexual maturity at approximately 50 millimetres (2.0 in) SL and age of one year. Hector's lanternfish is fished commercially using seine nets in the waters off South Africa, where catches have reached 42,400 tonnes.

Wikipedia contributors, Hector's lanternfish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T22:59:38.427271+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Lampanyctodes hectoris (Günther, 1876)

Name authority

(Günther, 1876)

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Myctophiformes

Family

Myctophidae

Genus

Lampanyctodes

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderMyctophiformes
11. familyMyctophidae Gill, 1893
12. subfamilyGymnoscopelinae Paxton, 1972
13. genusLampanyctodes Fraser-Brunner, 1949
14. speciesLampanyctodes hectoris (Günther, 1876)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 225 records assigned to Myctophidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=217704 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3S2LX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.