Author: hepsetus Linnaeus, 1758
Atherina (Atherina) hepsetus Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Atherina (Atherina) hepsetus Linnaeus, 1758 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: head length more than four times in TL. No teeth on pterygoid bones. Dorsal finrays VII-X, I + 10-12; anal finrays I + 11-13. Scales in longitudinal series 59-65. Gillrakers 30-36. Vertebrae 53-57. Size: to 20 cm, usually 15 cm.
Habitat: pelagic littoral, often near shore. Behaviour. gregarious, sometimes in marine lagoons (France) and estuaries (Portugal). Food: pelagic copepods and benthic crustaceans. Reproduction: December-May (Mediterranean: France, Italy). Age: to 3-4 years.
Distribution: Mediterranean, Black Sea and Caspian Sea (common, locally abundant). Atlantic, from Spain to Morocco, Madeira (rather rare).
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Marion, 1894b, pl. 1 (fig. 1-3) | Holt, 1899b, fig. 94 | Lo Bianco, 1909: fig. 279, pl. 34 (fig. 1-3) | Aboussouan, 1964: fig. 16 | Banarescu, 1964: 629, fig.
Otoliths (sagitta). Koken, 1884: 536 | Chaine, 1958: pl. 6.