Chelon labrosus

Author: Risso, 1826

Chelon labrosus Risso, 1826

Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Chelon labrosus (Risso, 1827) (updated 2009-06-25)

Diagnosis: head broad, its width more than width of mouth cleft; adipose eyelid not especially thick, not extending onto iris; upper lip very deep, equal to about half eye diameter, with 1-3 rows of papillae on lower third (increasing in number in larger fishes); corner of mouth cleft not reaching to below front nostril. About 6 pyloric caeca. Colour: back grey/blue, flanks and belly pale or silvery; dark longitudinal stripes along scale rows; no dark axillary blotch. Size: to 60 cm SL.

Habitat: pelagic, usually inshore, entering lagoons; tends to move northward in summer-time as the temperatures rise. Food: mainly on benthic diatoms, epiphytic algae, small invertebrates and detritus. Reproduction: winter months.

Distribution: Atlantic coasts from the Azores and Madeira northward to British Isles, southern Norway, the Faroes and southern Iceland; also, whole of Mediterranean, but not Black Sea. Elsewhere, southward to the Cape Verde Is. and Senegal.

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Brunelli, 1916: fig. 5 (young) | Sanzo, 1936: 7, pl. 2 (fig. 1-8) | Perlmutter et al., 1957: 295, fig. 4A-F | Morovic, 1957: fig. | Hickling, 1970: 629-631.
Otoliths (sagitta). Scott, 1906: 60, pl. IIIB (fig. 48), pl. V (fig. 12) | Sanz Echeverría, 1926: 149, fig. 7 | Chaine and Duvergier, 1928: 253, fig. 3 | Chaine, 1938a, 1938b: 196, pl. XV | Morovic, 1953: 4, fig. 2 | Bauza-Rullan, 1960a: 53, pl. V (fig. 15-18) | Erman, 1960: pl. III (fig. 5); 1961: fig. 1-2 | Weiler, 1968: 117 (bibliography).