Author: (Lowe, 1841)
Sardinella maderensis (Lowe, 1841)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Sardinella maderensis (Lowe, 1838) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body elongate, its depth rather variable, body fairly strongly compressed in some, less so in others; belly with moderately sharp keel of scutes. Gillrakers fine and numerous, more than 70 on lower part of first arch. Pelvic finrays 9. Colour: back blue/green, flanks silvery, with a faint golden midlateral line, preceded by a faint black spot posterior to gillopening; a black spot at dorsal fin origin; upper pectoral finrays white on outer side, the membrane between black. Size: to 30 cm, usually 20-25 cm.
Habitat: coastal pelagic, but tolerant of low salinities in estuaries; shoaling, at surface or at bottom down to 50 m; strongly migratory. Food: a variety of small planktonic invertebrates, also fish larvae and phytoplankton. Reproduction: in the upper water layers during the warm months.
Distribution: southern and eastern Mediterranean (penetrating the Suez Canal), also Gibraltar to northern Morocco. Elsewhere, southward from Morocco to southern Angola and Walvis Bay (rare). Abundant in some areas and of importance to fisheries.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Whitehouse, 1933: 12-13, fig. 6-9.
Otoliths (sagitta). Chaine, 1938: 138-139, pl. XII-XIII | Weiler, 1963: 17, fig. 34.