Author: (Fries, 1837)
Leptoclinus maculatus (Fries, 1837)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Leptoclinus maculatus (Fries, 1838) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body elongate, depth about 10 times in SL. Mouth rather large, reaching back to level of middle of eye. Dorsal fin with all rays piny, anterior rays very short, free (not connected by membrane); Dorsal and anal fins not joined to caudal fin; lower finrays of pectoral in long and with free ends, longer than middle rays of fin; caudal fin runcate. Colour: body yellowish-brown with numerous dark patches md usually 5 well-developed patches on back; numerous oblique brown stripes on dorsal fin. Size: to 20 cm SL, usually 14-16 cm.
Habitat: inshore and benthic over stony, pebbly or muddy bottoms at 15-250 m, descending off Greenland to 300-400 m; free lower pectoral finrays used when creeping along the bottom. Food: polychaetes and crustaceans. Reproduction: believed to enter shallow waters October-December to spawn; fecundity about 970 eggs; juveniles pelagic.
Distribution. Spitsbergen, Jan Mayen, Bear I., White Sea, Scandinavian coasts from Skagerrak, Iceland and south-western coasts of Greenland. Elsewhere, Labrador to Cape Cod; also, northern part of Pacific (subspecies L. maculatus diaphanocarus Schmidt).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Pertzeva, 1939: 461 462 (juveniles) | Rass, 1949: 37-38 (larvae), fig. 14b (here as Leptodinus maculatus: printer's error).
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.