Author: (Brünnich, 1768)
Pagellus bogaraveo (Brunnich, 1768)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Pagellus bogaraveo (Brünnich, 1768) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oblong; upper profile of head curved; eye diameter longer than length of snout. Occipital scales extending forward to between the posterior margin and middle of eye. Gillrakers 18-19 lower, 11-13 upper. D Xll-XIII + 11-13; A 111 + 11-12; the last dorsal and anal ray stronger than the others. Lateral line scales 68-74 to caud base. Colour: grey, more or less reddish; large dark spot at origin of lateral line; sometimes small shaded dark area at pectoral axil; fins pinl more or less bright; inside of mouth orange-red. Size: to 70 cm Sl usually 25-35 cm.
Habitat: inshore waters above various bottoms (rocks, sand, mud) to 400 m (Mediterranean) and 700 m (Atlantic); young near the coast adults on the slope of the shelf. Gregarious; spawning migrations to the coast. Food. omnivorous, mainly carnivorous (pelagic invertebrates, fish eggs, larvae and juveniles). Reproduction. all the year, with a maximun according to the region (August- October, British Isles; January- April. Bay of Biscay; January-March, Morocco; January- May, Mediterranean); generally hermaphroditic protandrous; fecundity 70,000-500,000 (31-41 cm); maturity at 4-5 years (22-25 cm).
Distribution: common in western Mediterranean, absent or very rare in eastern Mediterranean beyond the Sicilian Strait; some records in Adriatic, absent in Black Sea; Atlantic from Norway (65° N) to Cape Blanco, Madeira and the Canaries, exceptionally farther south.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Ehrenbaum, 1905: 21 | Lo Bianco, 1909: 73s-736 | Bounhiol and Pron, 1916: 141 | Fage, 1918: 40-42, fig. 27-28 | Ranzi, 1930: 407-416; 1933: 344-347, pl. 24 (12-16), 25 (1-12) | de Gaetani, 1934: 1-18,15 fig. | Vodyanitzki and Kazanova, 1954: 266, fig. 20 (10 fig.) | Ramos and Cendrero, 1967: 1-3, 7 fig. | Gueguen, 1969: 251-263, 14 fig.
Otoliths (sagitta) Shepherd, l910b: 57, fig. 6 | Sanz Echeverría, 1926: 153, fig. 42-43; 1930: 175, fig. 9 | Frost, 1927: 300, pl. 5 (fig. 13) | Chaine, 1937: 130, pl. 13.