Ijimaia loppei Roule, 1922

Iglésias, Samuel P., Bariche, Michel, Beau, Florent, Bérenger, Lucas, Beucher, Renaud, Chabrolle, Antoine, Cottalorda, Jean-Michel, Cousin, Bertrand, Curd, Amelia, Danet, Valentin, Duhamel, Erwan, Duval, Audrey, Farque, Pierre-André, Goascoz, Nicolas, Jadaud, Angélique, Larnaud, Pascal, Bouter, Mathieu Le, Bras, Yvan Le, Bris, Sylvain Le, Lombard, Laurent, Louisy, Patrick, Mandine, Alain, Mas, Lise, Menut, Thomas, Metral, Luisa, Poussard, Pierre, Quéro, Jean-Claude, Raybaud, Virginie, Renoult, Julien P., Richard, Thomas, Spitz, Jérôme, Ternon, Quentin, Thiriet, Pierre & Tournier-Broer, Ruben, 2021, French ichthyological records for 2019, Cybium 45 (3), pp. 169-188 : 173

Ijimaia loppei Roule, 1922

A Loppe’s tadpole fish, Ateleopodidae ( Fig. 3B ), was collected on 27 Oct 2019 during the EVHOE survey, using a bottom trawl. It was collected in the Southern Bay of Biscay, at Station X 0468 (44.5763 / 44.6063 °N, 2.1530 / 2.1617 °W), at 440-447 m depth. The fresh specimen measured 740+ mm

long (it was severed at about mi-body; probably about 150 cm TL unsevered), 448 mm pre-anal length, 210 mm HL and weighed 3.048+ kg. This specimen was preserved with the collection No. MNHN-IC 2021-0142 and a tissue sample was preserved under No. BPS-4268. Recorded by S.P. Iglésias. In the European Atlantic waters, the species was recorded first in the Celtic Sea, off Brittany, in the UK EEZ, based on a specimen collected in Apr 1988, at 48.33°N, 9.17°W, at 600 m depth ( Du Buit and Quéro, 1989). Later two specimens were recorded off the Iberian Peninsula, in the Basque Country waters (Bay of Biscay) and in Galician Atlantic waters, in May and June 1997, at 43.933°N, 2.383°W, at 300-370 m depth, and at 43.733°N, 8.750°W, respectively ( Punzón and Serrano, 1998). A fourth specimen, the northernmost record for the species, was collected on 12 Mar 2013 by a French commercial trawler off NW Scotland, at 59.217 / 59.300 °N, 6.933 / 6.633 °W, at 290-330 m depth ( Iglésias, 2014). The present specimen of this typically West African species represents the second record for the Bay of Biscay and the first record for the French EEZ. The species had nevertheless already been added to the “Checklist of the marine fishes from metropolitan France ” ( Béarez et al., 2017) because of the proximity of the previous record to the French waters.

Figures

Figure 3. – Significant French ichthyo- logical records for 2019 (continued). A: Photostomias guernei, 135 mm TL, 27 Oct 2019, MNHN-IC 2021-0141 (© S.P. Iglésias); B: Ijimaia loppei, 740+ mm long, 27 Oct 2019, MNHN- IC 2021-0142 (© S.P. Iglésias); C: Echiodon drummondii, 268 mm TL, 25 Nov 2019 (© S.P. Iglésias).