Author: Risso, 1810
Auxis rochei Risso, 1810
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Auxis rochei (Risso, 1810) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: pectoral fins short, not reaching vertical line from the anterior portion of the scaleless area above the corselet. Corselet scales extend posteriorly along the lateral line in a wide band which is more than 6 scales wide under the origin of the second dorsal fin. Colour: a pattern of 15 or more fairly broad, nearly vertical dark bars in the scaleless area above the lateral line. Size: to 50 cm fork length, common to 35 cm.
Habitat: epipelagic in inshore waters and near islands. Forms large schools of similar sized individuals. Food: small fishes, especially clupeids; also crustaceans, especially megalops larvae and larval stomatopods; and squids. Reproduction: extended spawning period, November August. Eggs and larvae planktonic.
Distribution: widely distributed in the southern part of the area, except in the Black Sea. Rare north of the Iberian coast. Isolated records from the British Isles and coasts of Belgium and Scandinavia. Elsewhere, cosmopolitan in warm waters.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Ehrenbaum, 1924: 33, fig. 8a-8g (larvae) | Padoa, 1956a: 501, fig. 339-343 (larvae) | Collignon, 1961: 67, fig. 4 (larvae) | Marchal, 1963b: 231, fig. 17-21 (larvae and post-larvae) | Bini, 1968, 6: 56, 2 fig.
Otoliths (sagitta). Bauzá-Rullán, 1958a: 187, pl. IX (fig. 1-5) | Fitch and Craig, 1964: 203.