Author: (Brünnich, 1788)
Lampris guttatus (Brünnich, 1788)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Lampris guttatus (Brünnich, 1788) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body deep, compressed and oval- shaped. Mouth small, protractile, toothless; lower jaw slightly protruding. Dorsal fin long-based, with 51-55 finrays, the first finrays as a falcate lobe; anal fin long-based, low, with 38-41 finrays and without anterior lobe; pectoral and pelvic fins long and sickle-shaped; pectoral fins placed high on sides, their bases horizontal; pelvic fins posterior to pectoral fin origin; caudal fin moderately forked. Scales minute, cycloid, deciduous; lateral line conspicuous, strongly arched over pectoral fin base. Colour: back blue shading to green, belly silvery, opaque whitish spots over body; fins deep red. Size: to 1.85 m SL.
Habitat: oceanic, epi- to mesopelagic to about 400 m; apparently solitary; migration not known. Food: midwater fishes and invertebrates, mainly squids. Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: eastern North Atlantic, North Sea and Mediterranean. Elsewhere, cosmopolitan in temperate and tropical seas.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Fulton, 1901: 290 | Ehrenbaum, 1905: 36 | Gudger, 1930: 168, fig. | d'Ancona et al., 1933: 280, fig. 240 | Breder and Rosen, 1966: 388.
Otoliths (sagitta). Frost, 1927: 439, pl. VIII | Stinton, 1967, pl. 2 (fig. 9a-b).