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Escal appendage pattern B; esca with a stout, internally pigmented anterior appendage, approximately twice length of escal bulb, bearing distally two or three, unpigmented, tapering filaments (shorter than to more than twice length of anterior appendage), and one or two branches or papillae (darkly pigmented in 121-mm paratype); numerous, highly filamentous, medial escal appendages in 43-mm holotype; a single unpaired, highly filamentous medial escal appendage in 121-mm paratype; a large truncated terminal escal papilla with a distal spot of pigment; an unpigmented, tapering posterior escal appendage approximately as long as escal bulb and bearing two small filaments in 43-mm holotype; lateral escal appendages absent; four highly branched, unpigmented, anterolateral escal appendages on each side.
Subopercle relatively short and broad, without indentation on posterodorsal margin; length of ventral fork of opercle 23.1–27.9% SL; ratio of lengths of dorsal and ventral forks of opercle 0.42–0.52.Epibranchial teeth absent; teeth present on pharyngobranchial II; total number of teeth in upper jaw 31–33, in lower jaw 38–40; number of teeth on vomer 4–6; dorsal-fin rays 5 or 6; anal-fin rays 4; pectoral-fin rays 18.
Measurements in percent of standard length: head length 33.1–39.5; head depth 40.0–51.2; premaxilla length 27.3–32.6; lower jaw length 38.0–50.0; illicial length 16.1–22.1.
In addition to unique differences in escal morphology, O. myrionemus is distinguished from all its congeners by having the following combination of character states: a relatively short head (shorter than that of all other species of the genus, with the exception of O. rosenblatti) and a short illicium (shorter than that of all other species of the genus, with the exception of O. luetkeni), and a short and broad subopercular bone.
Both type specimens of O. myrionemus were captured in the same haul in the Eastern North Atlantic at 32°47'N, 16°24'W, between the surface and 1800 m.
Meso- to bathypelagic
Pietsch TW. 2009. Oceanic Anglerfishes: Extraordinary Diversity in the Deep Sea. Berkley: University of California Press. 638 p.
As with most oneirodid taxa, males of the genus Oneirodes are free-living and presumed non-parasitic.
Known from two metamorphosed females (43–121 mm) and two tentatively identified specimens (76–137 mm).
WALTHER HERWIG station 512/71, 32°47'N, 16°24'W, CMBT-1600, 0–1800 m, 1945–2348 hr, 22 April 1971.
Holotype of Oneirodes myrionemus: ISH 3100a/71, 43 mm.
