Definition of "astronesthes"

The astronesthes, or 'eater of the stars,' so called because it feeds entirely upon other 'star-lit' fish called myctophids, is not only endowed with a number of small, luminous organs upon its body, but its fins, and the greater part of its chin-barbels, also emit a bright light.

1933, Walter Sydney Berridge, All about Fish and Other Denizens of the Seas & Rivers, page 67

You're a lucky guy to be eating anything right now. Instead you might easily be feeding the tunny fish and tarpon, to say nothing of the astronesthes and myctophids--

2021, Edward Stratemeyer, Don Sturdy on the Ocean Bottom

Beebe referred to these never-before-seen creatures as monsters, as devils and dragons. But he though of their bodies as philosophies, traditions of thought, as schools of dragonism. A college drop-out, he wondered what was to be learned at their great university: An astronesthes with batteries of hells-eye lights on its cheeks, a looped string of twenty lavender glowing beads suspended from its hyoid dewlap.

2023, Brad Fox, The Bathysphere Book: Effects of the Luminous Ocean Depths