Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Echelus myrus Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Echelus myrus (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body very elongate, compressed posteriorly, anus slightly anterior to midbody. Snout subconical. Anterior nostril opening near snout tip as a tube with trilobate edge, directed downward; posterior nostril opening before eye, in margin of upper lip, as an oval pore covered by a dermal fold. Rictus of mouth below posterior edge of eye. Teeth conical, long, slightly acute and curved on both jaws, shorter, almost granular on vomer. Dorsal and anal fins well developed (may fold into a deep dermal groove); dorsal fin origin slightly behind pectoral fin base. Lateral line with 49-52 preanal pores, 8 prepectoral, no supratemporal pores. Vertebrae: total 149-155; abdominal 54-57. Colour: greyish mixed with dark yellow or brownish, darker dorsally; lines of cephalic lateral line system unpigmented; dorsal and anal fins blackish in posterior third, lighter anteriorly. Size: to 1 m.
Habitat: benthic on the shelf, burrowing in sand or mud. Food: carnivorous. Reproduction: spawning in warm hydrological season (August-September in Bay of Algiers); eggs 3.3-3.7 mm; post-larvae and metamorphosis unknown.
Distribution: Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic northward to Bay of Biscay. Elsewhere, southward to Angola.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Kaup, 1860c: 270, pl. 3 (fig. A) (Leptocephalus kefersteini part.) | Sanzo, 1905: 315 | Lo Bianco, 1909: 731 | Schmidt, 1912b: pl. 4 | Grassi, 1913: 25, 124, pl. 7 (fig. 1421 and 25-30), pl. 14 (fig. 10-11) | Grassi, 1915: 704, pl. 2 (fig. 8) | Bertin, 1926: tab. 6 | Ancona, 1930: pl. 137 (fig. 2); 1931d: 125, fig. 104-109 | Sparta, 1940: 3 | Blache, 1968b: 1531, fig. 16 | Marinaro, 1971: pl. 3, fig. 2 | Blache, 1977: 208 (leptocephali).
Otoliths (sagitta). Frost, 1926a: 99 | Bauzá-Rullán, 1957: 35.