Chirolophis Swainson, 1839
See family for diagnosis, etc. Also, jaw teeth incisiform, their bases forming 2 alternating rows, their sharp and truncate tips forming a continuous, slightly undulating, cutting edge; no teeth on vomer or palatines. First anal finray a short flexible spine.
Habitat: benthic, usually over rocks and among seaweeds, never in intertidal zone, at 20 m, but descending to 100-280 m. Food: bottom invertebrates (small molluscs, polychaetes, hydroids, sponges), also algae. Reproduction: commonly in October/November; eggs in flattened masses (about the size of a chicken's egg) on stones, the eggs 2.3-2.8 mm in diameter; post-larvae occur in January-April (western English Channel), April-June (Murman coast), May/June (Iceland); fry pelagic.
Distribution: northern European coasts (Norwegian coast to Finmarken and Waranger Fjord, occasionally Murman coast, rare in Skagerrak, Kattegat and Eresund, around Heligoland, also British Isles), also the Orkneys, Faroes, Shetlands and Iceland. Elsewhere, larvae from off Baffin I. to Gulf of St Lawrence and off south-eastern Newfoundland.
Species 9; in Clofnam area 1.
Species of this genus in the program:
Chirolophis ascanii