Scomberesox lacepede, 1803
Diagnosis: body elongated, compressed. Caudal peduncle short, its length about equal to depth. Upper jaw greatly produced, fragile, slightly overlapped by a little more produced lower jaw. Dorsal finrays 15-18 (including 5-6 finlets); anal finrays 17-20 (including 5-7 finlets); pectoral finrays 12-15; procurrent caudal finrays 5-7. Gillrakers 34-45 on first arch. Lateral line extending backwards to over anal finlets. Seales along lateral midline 107-128, predorsal seales 75-87. Vertebrae 64-70. Ovaries paired, bilateral. Swimbladder large, thin-walled. Colour: iridescent blue above, silvery below. Size: to 45 em (max.); mature at about 25 em.
Habitat: oceanic, epipelagic (usually in very upper layers). Food: zooplankton, fish larvae. Reproduction: eggs pelagie. Commercial importance: object of limited fisheries in Spain.
Distribution: in the Mediterranean and in the North Atlantic between 30° and 45° lat. Occasional stragglers as far north as White and Barents Seas. Elsewhere, circumglobal in temperate and subtropical waters of southern hemisphere.
Species 1.
Species of this genus in the program:
Scomberesox saurus