Author: Bennett, 1831
Solea impar Bennett, 1831
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Pegusa impar (Bennett, 1831) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oval. Upper eye usually about its own diameter or a little more from dorsal profile of head. Anterior nostril on blind side enlarged, rosette-shaped, close to posterior nostril; anterior nostril on eyed side with a backward-pointing tube not reaching front border of lower eye. Dorsal fin beginning on anterior profile of head at level of inter-ocular space, with 65-83 finrays; pectoral fin on eyed side with 9-10 finrays, on blind side almost equally developed; anal finrays 40-43; caudal fin joined to last dorsal and anal finrays by a very low membrane, lateral line with 100-130 pored scales, the supra-temporal branch forming a smoothly rounded curve. Vertebrae 42-43. Colour: eyed side brownish-grey, more or less dark, with blue spots in life; pectoral fin on eyed side with a central dark spot and generally a white spot above it; dorsal, anal and caudal fins yellowish-grey with white margins; blind side yellowish-white. Size: to 25 cm SL.
Habitat: demersal on sand and mud at depths of 30-100 m, the young fishes near the coast. Food: mainly crustaceans (amphipods, mysids shrimps, decapods, isopods), also polychaete worms and bivalve molluscs. Reproduction: spnng and summer, with a peak in May (Mediterranean).
Distribution: eastern Atlantic (Gibraltar southward) and Mediterranean (except Aegean Sea). Elsewhere, southward to Senegal.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Padoa, 1956: 861-866, pl. 49 (fig. 1-6) | Varagnolo, 1964: 269, pl. III (fig. 15) | Marinaro, 1971: pl. 24 | Villani, 1977: 15-20, fig. 1-9.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.