Vertical distribution

A. astrosticta is a member of the mesopelagic boundary community in Hawaiian waters (Reid et al., 1991; Young, 1995). Adult specimens were caught at the bottom in 110 and 180m in Hawaii by gillnet and shrimp trawl. Juveniles were caught between 10 and 130m deep at night near Hawaii by pelagic trawls (Young, 1978).

Based on this sparse data, A. astrosticta is thought to inhabit near-bottom waters during the day at upper mesopelagic depth or shallower (i.e., waters with relatively high light levels) as indicated by the large size of their ventral photophores. At night they move into shallower waters, and presumably, move further off the ocean floor (Young, 199? ****)

Geographical distribution

This species was first described from Hawaiian waters. Distribution of the species includes the Ryukyu Islands (Tsuchiya, 1993), the Philippine Sea (Nesis and Nikitina, 1988), Hawaiian waters (Young, 1978; Burgess, 1992), New Zealand and western North Australia (Riddell, 1985; Lu and Philipps, 1985), and eastern North Australia.