Merluccius merluccius

Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)

Merluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758)

Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Merluccius merluccius (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)

Diagnosis: D1 8-11; D2 35-40; A 36-40. Gillrakers total 8-12, 7-9 on lower limb. Vertebrae (49) 50-52. Colour: usually slate grey above, lighter on sides and belly white, inside of mouth and branchial cavity black. Size: to 120 cm SL, usually 30-70 cm.

Habitat: midwater or at bottom, chiefly at 100-300 m, at edge and slope of continental shelf. In shoals, in deep water in winter and more inshore in summer; feeds mainly in midwater at night, returning to bottom at daytime. Food: almost entirely fish, in deep water blue whiting, in summer whiting, Norway pout, herring. Reproduction: in north later than in south, usually April-July off Ireland and May-August off Scotland, early spring in Bay of Biscay, January-March off Morocco, whole year, mostly in winter and spring, in Mediterranean.

Distribution: north-eastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea. Elsewhere, southward recorded at Port-Etienne.

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Schmidt, 1907: 1, fig. 1-4, pl. I (fig. 1-13) | Ehrenbaum, 1909: 260, fig. | d'Ancona, 1933: 208, fig. 195-198, pl. XII (fig. 15-19), pl. XIII (fig. 1-3).
Otoliths (sagitta). Koken, 1884: 529, pl. IX (fig. I) | Vaillant, 1888: 301 | Fryd, 1901: 27 | Pieragnoli, 1918: 27, pl. I (fig. 17) | Frost, 1926: 484, pl. XXII (fig. 6) | Sanz Echeverría, 1926: 160, fig. 69-70; 1935: 264, pl. XXX (fig. 19-25) | Weiler, 1935: 35, fig. 45 | Maurin, 1954: 21, fig. 8 | Schmidt, 1968: 20, pl. 3 (fig. 42), pl. 16 | Bouhlal and Ktari, 1975: 7, pl. 1-2.