''Parmops coruscans'' is a species of flashlight fish,

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Beryciformes The Beryciformes are a poorly-understood order of carnivorous ray-finned fishes consisting of 7 families, 30 genera, and 161 species. They feed on small fish and invertebrates. Beyond this, little is known about the biology of most member speci ...

, native to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

off the coast of

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austr ...

and from

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of Frenc ...

. It is one of two species of ''Parmops'' along with ''P. echinatus'', which was discovered off the coast of Fiji. Like other anomalopids, it is notable for the light organs underneath its eyes, which contain

bioluminescent Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by living organisms. It is a form of chemiluminescence. Bioluminescence occurs widely in marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorganisms including ...

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

. To cover the organs, it rotates them down while sliding a black lid upward over each eye. The lack of development in its shutter mechanism helps place it between ''

Anomalops The splitfin flashlightfish or two-fin flashlightfish (''Anomalops katoptron'') is a species of beryciform fish in the family Anomalopidae. It is found in warm waters in the central and western Pacific Ocean near shallow reefs in depth. It can g ...

'' and '' Phthanophaneron'' on the evolutionary tree. Its body is compressed and its snout is blunt, with large eyes set on either side. At SL in length, it is a small fish, and not a target for fisheries. Almost nothing is known about its biology or habitat. It was first described in 1991 by ichthyologists R. H. Rosenblatt and G. D. Johnson from a single specimen found at

at a depth of . It was named ''coruscans'' for the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word meaning "sparkling," and its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

name derives from the Latin word ''parma'' meaning "a little shield" and the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

word ''ops'' meaning "face."

References

External links

* * Anomalopidae Fish described in 1991 Fish of the Pacific Ocean {{Beryciformes-stub