Author: Ascanius, 1775
Argentina silus Ascanius, 1775
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Argentina silus (Ascanius, 1775) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fairly elongate. Eye larger than snout; lower gillrakers 11-15; branchiostegal rays 6. Adipose dorsal fin present; pectoral fins low on body, with 15-18 finrays; pelvic fin base usually just behind last dorsal finray; anal fin far back, short. Scales fairly strong, rough-edged; lateral line scales 64-69. Colour: pale greeny-yellow, with a marked silvery sheen on flanks and belly. Size: to 60 cm.
Habitat: probably schooling close to bottom, most commonly at 15O-550 m, but taken down to depths of 1,400 m; occasionally forming large trawl catches. Food: planktonic invertebrates, including euphausiids, amphipods, chaetognaths, squids and ctenophores, also small fishes. Reproduction: in European waters mostly mature at 10-12 years; spawning from April to July.
Distribution: south of Spitsbergen, around Bear I. to North Cape and east to Demidov Banks and Motovskii Gulf, coasts of Norway, deeper parts of North Sea, southward down west coasts of Scotland and Ireland and across the Wyville Thomson ridge to southern coasts of Iceland and across Denmark Strait to south-east coast of Greenland. Elsewhere, in western Atlantic in Davis Strait, off Labrador. the Grand Banks and George's Bank.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Schmidt, 1906: 1, pl. 1-2; 1918: 10.
Otoliths (sagitta). Schmidt, 1968: 9, pl. 1 (fig. 10).