Fish of the Argyropelecus genus of the Sternoptychinae subfamily of the Sternoptychidae (marine hatchetfishes, or deep-sea hatchetfishes) family of the Gonostomatoidei suborder of the Stomiiformes order of the Stenopterygii superorder.
(Half-naked hatchetfish. Photo by © Luciano Gomes Fischer. fishbase.org)
Half-naked hatchetfish (Argyropelecus hemigymnus) was first described in 1829 by the Italian naturalist Anastasio Cocco (1799-1854).
Bathypelagic appearance. It occurs at the depth of 0-2.400 meters, usually 100-700 meters. The maximum recorded length is 3.9 cm. It feeds on deep-water copepods, small-sized fish and other organisms.
(Half-naked hatchetfish. Photo by © Francesco Costa. fishbase.org)
It is a permanent inhabitant of the southern part of the Adriatic Sea.
Names of half-naked hatchetfish (Argyropelecus hemigymnus) in other languages are as follows:
Sopateza (Albanian), Pez hacha ganchudo (Spanish), Ascia d’argento (Italian), Beilfisch (German), Topornik wyłupiasty (Polish), Peixe-machadinha (Portuguese), Быстрый топорик (Bystryi toporik) (Russian), Sjekirica, Srebrna Sjekira (Serbian, Croatian).