Author: Quensel, 1806
Solea vulgaris Quensel, 1806
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Solea solea (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oval. Upper eye less than its own diameter from dorsal profile of head. Anterior nostril on blind side not enlarged, its distance from front margin of head 1.5-1.9 times in its distance from cleft of mouth; anterior nostril on eyed side with a backward-pointing tube not or only barely reaching front border of lower eye. Dorsal fin beginning on upper profile of head, with 69-97 finrays; pectoral fin on eyed side with 9-10 finrays, on blind side only a little shorter; anal finrays 53-79; caudal fin ending darker. Lateral line with 116-165 pored scales, the supra-temporal branch forming a smoothly rounded curve. Vertebrae 46-52. Colour: eyed side greyish-brown to reddish-brown, with large and diffuse dark spots; pectoral fin on eyed side with a blackish blotch at posterior end of fin; hind part of caudal fin generally darker than rest. Size: to 70 cm SL.
Habitat: demersal on sandy and muddy bottoms, from the shore down to 200 m. Food: polychaete worms, molluscs, small crustaceans. Reproduction: spawns January-April, with two peaks in February (Mediterranean), or December-May (Bay of Biscay), or April-June (North Sea).
Distribution: eastern Atlantic (southward from Trondheim Fjord, also North Sea and western Baltic) and Mediterranean (also Sea of Marmara, Bosphorus and south-western Black Sea). Elsewhere, southward to Senegal.
Solea vulgaris vulgaris (Quensel, 1806)
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Cunningham, 1890: 84, pl. 15 (fig. 3-6), pl. 16 (fig. 1-5) | Ehrenbaum, 1905: 138-143, fig. 63 | Fabre-Domergue and Biétrix, 1905 | Flüchter, 1965.
Otoliths (sagitta). Sanz Echeverria, 1929: 78, pl. 6 (fig. 9-10) | Frost, 1930: 236, Pl.- 9 (fig. 19) | Norman, 1934, fig. 8H | Chaine, 1936: 205, pl. 13 | Bauzá-Rullán, 1956: 129, pl. 10 (fig. 56-64) | Schmidt, 1968: 63, pl. 13 (fig. 178), pl. 24.
Solea vulgaris aegyptiaca (Chabauaud, 1927)
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.