Author: Pennant, 1776
Ranzania laevis Pennant, 1776
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oblong, covered by smooth hexagonal plates. Lips forming a funnel, closing mouth as a vertical slit. Clavus with 22 rays and straight edge. Dorsal finrays 17; anal finrays 13. Colour: blackish-blue above, sides grey with silvery lines curving across head and belly, and dorsal and ventral edges with black lines or spots. Size: to 80 cm TL.
Habitat: epipelagic. Behaviour: often gregarious, may form large schools. Food: no data. Reproduction: two developmental stages: (I) tetraodontiform—body rather elongate, no spines, caudal fin present; (2) ostracioniform (Centaurus boops)—body short, with a few very large and serrated spines.
Distribution: Mediterranean and Atlantic from Madeira to Scandinavia. Cosmopolitan.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Richardson, 1844: 52, pl. 30 (fig. 18-21) | Kaup, 1855: 221 | Günther, 1880: 175, fig. 93 | Sanzo, 1919: 1, fig. 1-4 | Schmidt, 1921: 76, fig. 2, 4-5 | Fraser-Brunner, 1951: 97, fig. 5 | Tortonese, 1956: 968, fig. 824-827 | Robinson, 1975: 27, fig. 1.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.