Boops Cuvier, 1814
Diagnosis: body elongately fusiform, moderately compressed; anterior section subcircular; eye large, diameter longer than snout; occipital scales extending slightly before posterior margin of eye. Mouth small oblique; lips very thin; teeth incisiform, uniserial in both jaws; upper, teeth quadridentate, lower quindentate with median point largest Gillrakers 16-20 lower, 7-8 upper. D XIII-XV + 12-16; A III + 14-16; pectoral fin short, ending before anus. Lateral line scales 69-80 to caudal base. Colour: back greenish or bluish, sides silvery or golden with 3-5 longitudinal golden lines; small dark spot at the pectoral axil; lateral line dark; fins light. Size: to 36 cm, usually 15-20 cm.
Habitat: inshore waters, demersal or semipelagic above various bottoms (sand, mud, rocks, Posidonia beds), to 200 m (Mediterranean) or 300 m (Atlantic). Gregarious, moving up to the surface during the night. Food: omnivorous (young mostly carnivorous, adults mostly herbivorous). Reproduction: February-April (eastern Mediterranean), April-May (western Mediterranean), March-May (Atlantic), summer (Black Sea); hermaphroditic (generally protogynous); fecundity 395,000 (TL 32 cm); maturity at 1 year (about 13 cm) in western Mediterranean; sex ratio about 60% females at 10-25 cm.
Distribution: whole of Mediterranean, rare in Black Sea; eastern Atlantic from Norway (occasional) to Angola, and oceanic islands; common from Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar. Elsewhere, western Atlantic in Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.
Species 1.
Species of this genus in the program:
Boops boops