Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Sciaena umbra Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Sciaena umbra Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body rather short and deep, back high, strongly arched; mouth inferior, nearly horizontal; teeth villiform. Dl X-XI; D2 I + 23-26, spinous portion high; A II + 7; caudal fin usually truncate. Scales ctenoid on body and nape, cycloid on rest of head. Swimbladder simple, carrot-shaped, without appendages. Colour: dark grey to dark brown; pelvic and anal fins jet black; soft portion of dorsal fin and lower part of caudal fin black-edged. Size: to 50 cm SL, common to 35 cm.
Habitat: inshore waters, from 20 to 180 m, mainly on rocky and sandy bottoms; active nocturnally. Food: small fishes and crustaceans. Reproduction: probably from March to August (Mediterranean).
Distribution: along the Atlantic coast northward to the Eng1ish Channel and throughout Mediterranean, Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Elsewhere, south to Senegal, including the Canaries.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. ? Raffaele, 1888: 26, pl. I (fig. 11-12) (egg), pl. IV (fig. 17) (larva) | Vodjanitzki, 1936: 6 | Montalenti, 1937: 399, pl. XXXII (fig. 1-8) | Vodjanitzki and Kazanova, 1954: 271, 273-274, fig. 25 (10 fig.) | Banarescu, 1964: fig. 314 (from Vodjanitzki and Kazanova).
Otoliths (sagitta). Aldrovandus, 1648: 796, fig. 1-3 (as Corvulus and Coracinus) | Koken, 1884: 566, pl. X (fig. 3) | Schubert, 1902: 303, pl. X (fig. 1) | Chaine, 1938: 81, pl. X | Bauzá-Rullán, 1961:161, pl. III (fig. 27-28) | Weiler, 1968: 122.