Author: Cetti, 1789
Diplodus puntazzo Cetti, 1789
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Diplodus puntazzo (Cetti, 1777) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: snout conical, lips thin. In each jaw, 8 incisors inclined forward (light brownish coloured); 1 or 2 series of rudimentary molars at back of javvs; gillrakers 7-11 lower, 5-7 upper. D XI + 12-15; A III + 11-13; first dorsal spine very short. Lateral line scales 53-64 to caudal base. Colour: silvery grey; 11-13 transverse stripes, alternately very dark and paler; dark band in caudal peduncle; hind caudal edge dusky; other fins greyish, distally darker; very dark spot at the upper base of pectoral fin; general coloration fading with age and after death. Size: to 60 cm SL, usually 25-30 cm.
Habitat: Iittoral waters on rocky bottoms to 150 m (more abundant around 60 m); young near the coast and sometimes in brackish waters (deep lagoons); adults in breakers. Gregarious. Food: omnivorous (algae, worms, mussels, shrimps). Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: very common throughout the Mediterranean, rare in Black Sea; Atlantic, common from Gibraltar to Sierra Leone, rare to the north (Bay of Biscay); absent in Madeira, present in the Canaries and the Cape Verde Is.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Lo Bianco, 1909: 706 | Ranzi, 1930: 407-416; 1933: 363, pl. 28 (fig. 11-20) | Vodjanitzki and Kazanova, 1954: 268, fig. 22 (2 fig.) | Thomopoulos, 1956: 7, pl. 2 (fig. 17-18).
Otoliths (sagitta). Chaine, 1937: 170, pl. 15 | Sanz EcheverrÃa, 1943: 26, pl. 3 (fig. 13-18).