Author: Risso, 1810
Liza aurata Risso, 1810
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Liza aurata (Risso, 1810) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: head broad, space between eyes about equal to width of mouth cleft; adipose eyelid rudimentary; upper lip thin, less than pupil diameter; corner of mouth cleft reaching to below front nostril; hind edge of preorbital pointed. No pectoral axillary scale. Scales on head extend forward to level of posterior nostril. Colour: back grey/blue, flanks and belly pale or silvery; a golden blotch on operculum. Size: to 50 cm SL.
Habitat: pelagic, usually inshore, entering lagoons and estuaries, but rarely moves into freshwater. Food: small benthic organisms, detritus, occasionally insects and plankton. Reproduction: July-November.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from the Azores and Madeira northward to the British Isles and southern coasts of Norway and Sweden (but not Baltic); also, whole of Mediterranean and Black Sea. Elsewhere, southward to the Cape Verde Is. and Senegal, also northern part of Red Sea; introduced in the Caspian.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Brunelli, 1916, fig. 1 (young fry) | De Buen, 1932: 6, fig. 3 | Vodjanitzki, 1936: 7, 26, pl. 8 (eggs and larvae) | Vialli, 1937: fig. 284 (after Brunnelli) | Vodjanitzki and Kazanova, 1954: 251, fig. 9 (6 fig.) | Perlmutter et al., 1957: 298, fig. 7A-F | Burdak, 1957 (postlarval development) | Banarescu, 1964: fig. 265 (after Vodjanitzki and Kazanova).
Otoliths (sagitta). Sanz Echeverría, 1926: 149, fig. 8 | Chaine and Duvergier, 1928b: 253, fig. 2 | Chaine, 1938: 190, pl. XIV | Bauzá-Rullán, 1960: 50, pl. IV (fig. 1-6).