Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Epinephelus guaza Linnaeus, 1758
Diagnosis: body robust. D XI + 13-16, A III + 8-9, caudal fin rounded. Scales small, embedded in thick skin. Colour: reddish-brown, with scattered lighter or white irregular areas and spots, more evident in young; caudal fin with a distinct white margin. Size: to 150 cm SL, usually 90 cm.
Habitat: chiefly on rocky bottoms, between about 8 and 200 m. Very sedentary. Food: mainly cephalopods, also fishes and crustaceans. Reproduction: during summer (Mediterranean).
Distribution: eastern Atlantic northward to British Isles (very rare), and around the Azores, Madeira and the Canaries, also Mediterranean. Elsewhere, eastern Atlantic southward to around South Africa (to Natal); western Atlantic from Bermuda and the Guianas to Brazil.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Bertolini, 1933: 315, pl. 20 (fig. 5), pl. 21 (fig. 14).
Otoliths (sagitta). Shepherd, 1910a: 57, fig. 1 | Sanz EcheverrÃa, 1929: 74, pl. 5 (fig- 7) | Chaine, 1935: 129, pl. 10.