A New Species of Bregmacerotidae (Pisces), Bregmaceros Cantori, from the Western Atlantic Ocean

A new species, Bregmaceros cantori, is described from more than 600 juvenile and adult specimens collected from the Cariaco Trench, Venezuela, and the Gulf of Mexico. The species differs markedly from B. macclellandi and B. atlanticus, as well as from an undescribed species. Bregmaceros cantori can be identified based on several morphological, meristic and probable behavioral/ecological characteristics (e.g., eye size, fin ray counts, diurnal vertical migration). The new species is coastal-oceanic in its distribution and superficially resembles Indo-Pacific B. nectabanus and B. rarisquamosus, from which it differs in meristic characteristics. Larval B. cantori are the most common bregmacerotid in the western Atlantic and are easily separated from their congeners and from other species that have been described. Bregmaceros cantori from the Cariaco Trench undergoes a diurnal vertical migration in which the adult population spends approximately 11 hours in the anoxic, sulfurous waters of the Trench, a behavior pattern not previously observed in Atlantic Bregmaceros.