Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Anarhichas lupus Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Anarhichas lupus Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: head large, snout blunt; jaw teeth strong, canine-like in front, rounded and frequently rather worn teeth behind; teeth on vomer large, reaching back beyond the line of palatine teeth on either side of them. Rather rounded caudal fin with 22-26 finrays. Colour: body yellowish or bluish-grey, with 9-13 darker cross-bars extending onto base of dorsal fin. Size: to 125 cm TL.
Habitat. on rocky bottoms, sometimes over sand or mud, at 1-500 m; in trawl catches: mainly at 100-150 m (less than 50 m in White Sea). Food: hard-shelled molluscs, crabs, sea-urchins and other echinoderms. Reproduction: eggs deposited in spherical clumps at about 10-120 m in July-February (May-August in White Sea), larvae hatching January-July, pelagic until 5-6 cm TL (late autumn).
Distribution. Spitsbergen southward to White Sea, Scandinavian coasts, North Sea, the British Isles, also Iceland and south-eastern coasts of Greenland. Elsewhere, western coasts of Greenland, Labrador to Cape Cod.
Eggs, larvae, and young stages. McIntosh and Prince, 1890: 671-673, 781, 874-928, pl. I, XX-XXVII | Barsukov, 1959, passim, fig. 42 (3) | Baranenkova et al., 1960: 1186-1200, fig. 2-3.
Otoliths (sagitta). Nijssen, 1964: 180-181, fig. 1 | Schmidt, 1968: 47, pl. 9, fig. 125.
Subspecies
Anarhichas lupus lupus. palatine teeth usually more than 14 (at 20 cm TL or more); lower jaw not so heavy anteriorly; no spots between cross-bars on flanks; grows to 125 cm TL, mostly to 90 cm.
Anarhichas lupus marisalbi: palatine teeth usually less than 14; lower jaw heavy anteriorly; dark spots often present between cross-bars; grows to only 81 cm TL, mostly to 50 cm.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Barsukov, 1953: 1211-1216;1959: passim.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.