Diplodus vulgaris

Author: E. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, 1817

Diplodus vulgaris E. Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, 1817

Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Diplodus vulgaris (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817) (updated 2009-06-25)

Diagnosis: Iips rather thick; in each jaw, 8 narrow incisors (light brownish coloured); molars behind incisors and at back of jaws in several series, 3-5 in upper, 2-4 in lower jaw; gillrakers 10-12 lower, 6-9 upper. D XI-XII + 13-16; A III + 12-15. Lateral line scales 51-61 to caudal base. Colour: generally grey, brownish to greenish; broad black band from nape to axil of pectorals and on upper margin of opercle; broad black band across caudal peduncle overlapping posterior bases of anal and dorsal fins; black spot at the upper pectoral axil; caudal fin dark, black distally; other fins dusky, darker distally; young with peduncular band less developed forward. Size: to 45 cm SL, usually 20-25 cm.

Habitat: littoral waters on rocky or sandy bottoms to 90 m (Atlantic), 70 m (Mediterranean); young on Posidonia beds, entering lagoons (Atlantic and exceptionally Mediterranean). Food: carnivorous (crustaceans, molluscs and worms). Reproduction: generally October-November in western Mediterranean (November-January in Golfe du Lion), December-January in eastern Mediterranean; two spawning periods off Algeria, December-January for the smallest and May-June for the largest specimens (over 25 cm); maturity at 2 years (about 17 cm); potentially hermaphroditic.

Distribution: common in all Mediterranean, recorded in Black Sea off Bulgaria; Atlantic from south of Brittany to Cape Verde Is., Madeira and the Canaries. Elsewhere, off Angola.

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Raffaele, 1888: 23 | Lo Bianco, 1909: 746 | Ranzi, 1930: 407 416; 1933: 357, pl. 27 (fig. 1-14).
Otoliths (sagitta). Sanz Echeverría, 1926: 153, fig. 47; 1943: 24, pl. 3 (fig. 9-12) | Frost, 1927b: 301, pl. 5 (fig. 15) | Chaine, 1937: 146, pl. 14.