Food Habits of the Lanthernfish Benthosema pterotum in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea.

Abstract

The stomach content of the lanternfish, Benthosema pterotum is analyzed based on 700 specimens caught during the daytime by an otter trawl in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea in October 1989 and 1990. The food items were mainly composed of zooplankton such as copepods, euphausiids, ostracods and chaetognaths. This composition of food items has changed with the area, year and body size range. The average stomach content index in weight was 0.91±0.9 and 0.88±0.7 in October 1989 and 1990, respectively. Since B. pterotum is known to be a common prey organism of larger fishes of commercial value, this species is thought to play an important role as the third producer connecting second producers such as small crustaceans with much higher producers in the food web of the studied areas.