Common names
Tollo lucero diablo, Sagre lucifer, Blackbelly lantern shark, Blackbelly lanternshark, Lucifer dogfish, Lucifer shark, Luminous shark, Lixinha-de-fundura lucifera

Short Description
Dark grey (Ref. 6577) or brown dorsally, black ventrally, with a distinct black streak above and behind pelvic fins; fins lighter; belly luminous [578]. Small and slender with a moderately elongate caudal peduncle and with flank denticles mostly arranged in regular rows. The base of the pelvic flank marking is under the second dorsal-fin spine, the anterior branch is usually longer than the posterior branch, and the caudal marking is considerably longer than the precaudal marking [1388].

Distribution
Southwest Atlantic: Uruguay and Argentina. Also southern Brazil [19579]. Western Indian Ocean: Tanzania to South Africa. Western Pacific: Japan to New Zealand. Southeast Pacific: Amber Seamount. A small specimen from off the Kerguelen Islands needs to be verified. Some records probably based on Etmopterus molleri and Etmopterus brachyurus [544]. Source: www.gbif.org

Human uses
fisheries: of no interest

Biology
Presumably ovoviviparous [1388]. Size at birth about 15 cm [1388]. Distinct pairing with embrace [17086]. Found on the outer continental and insular shelves and upper slopes [518] (Ref. 75154). Benthopelagic at 183-823 m [17640]. Its luminescent belly may attract prey [578], which consists mainly of squid (reported to bite squid bigger than itself), small bony fishes, and shrimps [518]. Often caught in large schools which may suggest that the luminescence may also be used to keep the group together in the dark deep ocean [578]. Feeds om myctophids and cephalopods (Ref. 58748).

Size / Weight / Age
47.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; [1388])

Habitat
benthopelagic; marine; depth range 150 - 1250 m [578]

Dentition
Descripion: Teeth small, compressed, and each of those in the upper jaw with two sharp basal cups [3005]; Teeth of Etmopterus abernethyi (synonym of E. lucifer): Teeth 11-1-11/18-17 in the male of 338 mm, 10-1-11/16-15 in the female of 278 mm, dissimilar in the two jaws. The upper teeth erect, multi-cusped, each with a long, sharply-pointed, awl-shaped, smooth-edged major cusp flanked on each side by one or two lesser cusps, and borne on a longitudinally-striated base. Most of the upper teeth have two lesser cusps on each side of the major cusp, with the outer cusp of these two very much smaller than the inner which is one-third to one-half of the length of the major cusp. The teeth towards the angle of the jaw have only one or no lesser cusps on each side. Three series of upper teeth functional at the centre of the jaw, two towards the angles. The lower teeth blade-like, each with a smooth-faced, subreetangular, laterally-rounded base, bearing a single, smooth-edged triangular cusp. Each cusp is sharply notched laterally, very strongly oblique, and overlaps the adjacent cusp so that an almost continuous cutting edge is formed. There is no median tooth, and the base of the first tooth on the left side overlaps that of the first tooth on the right. A single series of lower teeth functional [2751];

Remarks
shark-references Species-ID=2177; Links:

digital version of the original description of E. lucifer: JORDAN, D.S. & SNYDER, J.O. 1902: Descriptions of two new species of squaloid sharks from Japan. Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 25 (1279): 79-81"

digital version of the original description of E. abernethyi: GARRICK, J.A.F. 1957: Studies on New Zealand Elasmobranchii. Part VI. Two new species of Etmopterus from New Zealand. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, 116 (3): 169-190"

species description at Digital Fish Library

Parasites (arranged by Jürgen Pollerspöck)
Cestoda

• Plesiorhynchus etmopteri Beveridge, 1990 [16251] [16112]

Copepoda

• Neoalbionella etmopteri (Yamaguti, 1939) [16562]