Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Argentina sphyraena Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Argentina sphyraena Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fairly elongate. Eye about equal to snout; lower gillrakers 7-10; branchiostegal rays 6. Adipose dorsal fin present; pectoral fins low on body, with 12-15 finrays; anal fin far back, short. Scales thin, often missing, edges almost smooth; lateral line scales 50-54. Colour: back olive green, a prominent silvery stripe down flanks, belly greyish-white. Size: to 32 cm, but usually smaller.
Habitat: continental shelf to 450 m or deeper; relatively common, abundant in some localities; probably schools near bottom. Food: bottomliving polychaetes, molluscs and crustaceans, also pelagic invertebrates and fishes. Reproduction: winter and spring spawning in Mediterranean, March to July off British coasts; eggs and larvae pelagic.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts southward from northern Norway, also Faroes, Shetlands and southern Iceland; Mediterranean, mainly western parts but recorded also at eastern end (but not in Black Sea). Elsewhere, southward to 24° N along coast of West Africa.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Schmidt, 1906: 10, pl. 1 (fig. 1423); 1918: 6, fig. | Sanzo, 1933: 26, fig. 24-31 .
Otoliths (sagitta). Schmidt, 1968: 9, pl. 1 (fig. 11).