CalCOFI.io CalCOFI.io open data ecosystem

Phosichthyidae

Lightfishes

Familyaccepted · checked 2026-08-05WoRMS 125602ITIS 622313GBIF 2227key worms:125602
i

2026-08-05: itis_id 622313 via WoRMS external link

Lightfishes are small stomiiform fishes in the family Phosichthyidae They are bioluminescent fishes, possessing rows of photophores along their sides, with which they hunt planktonic invertebrates, especially krill, copepods, and planktonic amphipods.W CalCOFI holds 13 observations of it in 2 datasets between 1963 and 2012, as larva, across 2 taxa under it.R

13
observations
13
records
2
sampling events
1963–2012
years
2
datasets
1
species under it
larva
life stages
Photograph of Phosichthyidae
Photo · Ken Graham · CC BY-NC 4.0 · inat NC

Observed in 2 datasets
i

One row per dataset, and beside it one cell per year, darker with more observations — the same strip the front door draws per dataset. Each row ends with the name that dataset uses (dataset_taxon); the accepted name is written once, in the title above. A quiet pill marks a name the authority does not accept.

  • 1 obs1 events2011
    name used: Phosichthyidae · code Phosichthyidae
  • 1 obs1 events2002larva
    name used: Phosichthyidae Lightfishes · code 1140

Ways inExplorerdb-queryERDDAPRPythonThis page as JSON

Code and endpoints ERDDAP · R · Python · JSON
ERDDAPCalCOFI's own server, the Mesopelagic Fish table constrained to this taxon
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/sio_mesopelagic-fish.html?&taxon_key=%22worms:125602%22

Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.19, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.

How big is it not on record

Not on record: no authority the fetcher reads carries a length for this taxon (a genus page could show the range of its species).

Under it 1 taxon
Life stages larva
  • Ichthyoplankton larva

The stages each dataset records for it, from the release's obs_bio.life_stage.

Lineage 10 ranks · Biota to Stomiiformes
Credits silhouette · photo · text
Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist

WikidataiNaturalist

The same organism on the services the faces were fetched from; the authorities' own pages are the ids in the head.

Cite the release, v2026.10.19

Cite the release, v2026.10.19; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗