Molva molva

Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)

Molva molva (Linnaeus, 1758)

Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Molva molva (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)

Diagnosis: upper jaw projecting beyond lower one. Eye small, more than five times in head length and one and a half to two times in snout length. Head small, less than five and a half times in body length. First dorsal finrays 14-15, second dorsal finrays 61-68; anal finrays 58-64. Vertebrae 63-65. Colour: bronze or bronze green above, distinctly marbled, lighter below, dark spot at hind edge of both dorsal fins, anal fins white-edged. Size: to 150-180 cm SL, rarely to 200 cm.

Habitat: deepwater, 300-400 m; immature inshore, in 15-20 m, over rocks. Behaviour: evidently not gregarious, no long-distance migrations. Food: mostly fishes (gadoids, herring, flatfishes), also crustaceans, starfish. Reproduction: from March to July, between 50-300 m.

Distribution: North Atlantic from western Barents Sea, Iceland, Skagerrak and Kattegat to Gibraltar, also western Mediterranean (rare). Elsewhere, western North Atlantic (rare).

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Schmidt, 1906: 1, pl. I (fig. 1425) | Ehrenbaum, 1909: 267, fig. 96 | d'Ancona, 1933: 226, fig. 210-213.
Otoliths (sagitta). Fryd, 1901: 27 | Frost, 1926: 488, pl. XXI (fig. 1) | Sanz Echeverría, 1935: 259, pl. XXX (fig. 1-2) | Schmidt, 1968: 18, pl. 3 (fig. 37), pl. 16.