Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Xiphias gladius Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body robust, deepest behind head, then tapering evenly; nape rising moderately steeply in adults, bill long, flattened and sword-like; no teeth in jaws in adults. 2 dorsal fins, both short, the first with 21-30 finrays, the second with 3 (the fins joined in juveniles and young); similarly 2 anal fins, the first with 12-13 finrays, the second with 3 (also joined in juveniles and young); pelvic fins absent; caudal fin lunate in adults, emarginate to forked in young; a large horizontal keel on each side of caudal peduncle. No scales in adult, but peculiar scale-like structures present in young, gradually disappearing. Vertebrae 26. Colour: back and upper flanks uniformly dark brown, sometimes with a metallic blue tinge on back, lower flanks and belly light brown. Size: to 4.5 m TL, usually 2.5-3.5 m; specimens weighing over 650 kg have been reported.
Habitat: tropical and temperate waters, down to 800 m, strongly migratory, solitary for the most part, but occasionally in concentrations; aggressive. Food: a wide range of fishes, with herrings, mackerels and carangids preferred, also squids; the sword-like bill is believed to be used to slash into shoals, as well as in defence. Reproduction: January-October in eastern Atlantic (a peak in February-April in western Atlantic), June-September (with a peak from the end of June to August) in Mediterranean, juvenile stages have jaw teeth, a form of scales, and single and long dorsal and anal fins; spawning is in the warmer parts of the range, with migrations to the cooler waters for feeding.
Distribution: warm and temperate parts of area, but straying as far northward as Iceland in summer months; throughout Mediterranean, also Black Sea. Elsewhere, worldwide in tropical and temperate seas.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Sanzo, 1910: 206, fig. 1-2; 1922: 1, pl. 1-2; 1930: 4, fig. 1-3 | Sella, 1911: 1 and pl. | Arata, 1954: 185, 19 fig. | Tåning, 1955: 438-450, 4-5g. | Padoa, 1956: 516, fig. 350-355, pl. 36 (fig. 8) | Bini, 1968, 6: 68, 3 fig. | Marinaro, 1971: 60, pl. 14 (fig. 3) | Ovchinnikov, 1971:10 et passim, fig. 12, 27.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.