Author: (Sabine, 1824)
Lycodes polaris (Sabine, 1824)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Lycodes polaris (Sabine, 1824) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body fairly elongate, its depth 9-11% TL at anal origin, entirely naked. Palatine teeth in a single row, vomer with few teeth (less than 10). Pectoral fin 9-12% TL, with (15) 16-17 (18) finrays; preanal distance 48-55% TL. Lateral line single, midlateral. Vertebrae 90-93. Colour: 9-11 light cross-bands separated by slightly broader dark bands; peritoneum light. Size: to 25 cm TL, usually 15-20 cm.
Habitat: benthic on muddy bottoms at (10) 30-150 (212) m, avoiding brackish waters with salinities below 25-30%o; the fishes bury into the mud tail first. Food: small bottom invertebrates, chiefly amphipods, occasionally polychaetes and bivalves. Reproduction: Iate autumn; eggs demersal, fairly numerous (99-187), 4-5 mm diameter.
Distribution: nearly circumpolar along Arctic coasts of Asia and North America; not found off eastern Greenland, off Iceland, Spitsbergen or Murman coast; northern part of Bering Sea.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Jensen, 1904b: 81, pl. VI (fig. 1b) | Andriashev, 1954: 275.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.