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Symbolophorus californiensis

California lanternfish

Speciesaccepted · checked 2026-08-05WoRMS 272733ITIS 623871GBIF 2406162key worms:272733
i

2026-08-05: itis_id 623871 via WoRMS external link

Symbolophorus californiensis is a species of fish in the family Myctophidae.W CalCOFI holds 5,544 observations of it in 3 datasets between 1951 and 2023, as larva.R

5,544
observations
5,544
records
5,543
sampling events
1951–2023
years
3
datasets
larva
life stages
11 cm
max length
Photograph of Symbolophorus californiensis
Photo · pootishedj · CC BY-NC 4.0 · inat NC

Observed in 3 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.

  • 5,485 obs5,485 events1951–2023larva
    name used: Symbolophorus californiensis California lanternfish · code 296
  • 57 obs57 events2010–2012
    name used: Symbolophorus californiensis · code Symbolophorus californiensis
  • 2 obs1 events2022
    name used: Symbolophorus californiensis · code urn:lsid:marinespecies.org:taxname:272733

Ways inExplorerdb-queryERDDAPRPythonThis page as JSON

Code and endpoints ERDDAP · R · Python · JSON
ERDDAPCalCOFI's own server, the Ichthyoplankton table constrained to this taxon
https://erddap.calcofi.io/erddap/tabledap/swfsc_ichthyo.html?&taxon_key=%22worms:272733%22

Read from taxa.json of release v2026.10.20, written at release by calcofi4db::build_taxa_catalog(). The catalog's index is /species/.

How big is it 11 cm max · flexion 8.5–10 mm
California lanternfish11 cm
US quarter2.4 cm

max · worms_attribute

Every mark is a measured length with its own source — hover one to read it. The reference objects are _data/size_reference.csv: two of them, the 505 µm bongo mesh and the net's ring, are CalCOFI's own sampling gear.

Life stages larva
  • Ichthyoplankton larva

The stages each dataset records for it, from the release's obs_bio.life_stage. Their lengths are under How big is it.

Lineage 13 ranks · Biota to Symbolophorus
Credits silhouette · photo · text · length · plate
  • Silhouette · T. Michael Keesey · Public Domain Mark · PhyloPic, drawn from Myctophum punctatum · source
  • Photo · pootishedj · CC BY-NC 4.0 · inat · source
  • Text · Wikipedia, “Symbolophorus californiensis” · CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1362687084
  • Length · worms_attribute
  • Plate · Matarese, Kendall, Blood & Vinter 1989, NOAA Tech. Rep. NMFS 80, via the AFSC Ichthyoplankton Information System · Public domain (US Government work) · noaa_iis · source
Elsewhere Wikidata · iNaturalist · FishBase

WikidataiNaturalistFishBase

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

Cite the release, v2026.10.20

Cite the release, v2026.10.20; each dataset's own citation, licence and DOI are on its page. How to cite ↗