Author: Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810
Euthynnus alletteratus Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Euthynnus alletteratus (Rafinesque, 1810) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: vomerine teeth absent. Gillrakers (10-12) + 1 + (26- 32) = 37-45. Vertebrae 20 + 19 = 39; vertebral protuberances very slightly developed on thirty-third and thirty-fourth vertebrae; bony caudal peduncle keels on thirty-third and thirty-fourth vertebrae. Colour: back dark blue with a complicated striped pattern not extending forward beyond middle of first dorsal fin; lower sides and belly silvery white; several characteristic dark spots between pelvic and pectoral fins (not always very conspicuous). Size: to 100 cm fork length, 12 kg, common to 85 cm and about 7 kg weight.
Habitat: epipelagic in coastal waters, near shoals and offshore islands. Schooling; less migratory than larger species of tunas. Food: mainly small fishes, such as clupeoids but also squids and crustaceans. Reproduction: extended spawning period, April-November. Eggs and larvae planktonic.
Distribution: a warm-water Atlantic species, found throughout the southern part of the area except in the Black Sea; rare north of the Iberian Peninsula; a few isolated catches from Scottish and Scandinavian coasts .
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Ehrenbaum, 1924: 28, fig. 6a-6c (larvae) (?,) | Padoa, 1956a: 497, fig. 335 (larvae) (?) | Klawe and Shimada, 1959: 107, fig. 4 (larvae) | Matsumoto, 1959: 11, fig. 8-14 (larvae, excepted the last one which is already a juvenile) | Marchal, 1963a: 656; 1963b: 214, fig. 7-11 (larvae) | Bini, 1968, 6: 52, 3 fig. | Zhudova, 1969 (transl. Klawe, 1970): 6, fig. 6 (larva).
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.