Author: (Le Sauvage, 1824)
Hyperoplus lanceolatus (Le Sauvage, 1824)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Hyperoplus lanceolatus (Le Sauvage, 1824) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: vomerine teeth appearing as a single bicuspid tooth (Fig. 5). Dorsal rays 53-60; anal rays 27-32; pectoral fins 27-32% of head length, and not reaching level of first dorsal finray. Plicae 165-195. Vertebrae 65-69. Colour: a conspicuous dark spot (a little less than eye diameter) on either side of snout; back green/blue (juveniles often distinctly greenish when mixed with Ammodytes species). Size: to 40 cm.
Habitat: inshore, including the inter-tidal zone and estuaries, and offshore to about 60 m depth. Commonly associated with Ammodytes species, but probably less gregarious. Food: initially zooplankton, but for lengths greater than 10-15 cm small fish, such as clupeids and ammodytids dominate the diet. Reproduction: summer batch spawner; ripe adults occuring March-August.
Distribution: eastern North Atlantic from eastern Murman (70° N) and Spitzbergen (75° N) to Portugal (38° N) including Iceland and much of the Baltic. Not recorded from Mediterranean and Barents Seas.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Kändler, 1941: 77 et seq. as A. tobianus | Corbin and Vati, 1949: 298, pl. Il (fig. l) as A. tobianus | Macer, 1967: 2, 5, fig. 2a-d.
Otoliths (sagitta). Sanz Echeverría, 1926: 158, fig. 24 | Kändler, 1941: Abb. 19 | Macer, 1966: pl. 1c.