Sarpa Bonaparte, 1831
Diagnosis: body oblong; head short, snout obtuse, mouth subterminal and small; upper jaw slightly prominent. Scales on cheek and opercle. In both jaws incisors uniserial, upper ones notched, lower ones depressed on their outer face and ending in a single triangular point; all incisors with well visible roots inside of mouth; gillrakers 12-14 lower, 6 7 upper. D Xl-XII + 14 17; A 111 + 13-15; pectoral short, ending before anus. Lateral line scales 70 80 to caudal base. Colour: grey-bluish; 10-11 fine longitudinal golden lines along rows of scales; eye yellow; lateral line very dark; black spot at upper pectoral base; caudal fin dark grey, other fins light. Size: to 46 cm SL, usually 30 cm.
Habitat: Iittoral waters near rocks with algal coverage, beds of Posidonia, Zostera and Caulerpa (warm waters) and also on sandy mud to 70 m. Gregarious, sometimes large schools. Food: omnivorous, young mainly carnivorous (crustaceans), adults almost exclusively herbivorous. Sometimes toxic in summer when it feeds on Caulerpa. Reproduction: two periods (spring and autumn) according to the temperature of water; hermaphroditic protandrous.
Distribution: common throughout Mediterranean, rare in Black Sea; Atlantic, recorded in North Sea (52° N), Bay of Biscay (rare) to Sierra Leone, Madeira, the Canaries and the Cape Verde Is. (common). Elsewhere, from Congo to South Africa.
Species 1.
Species of this genus in the program:
Sarpa salpa