Author: Capello, 1867
Microchirus (Zevaia) azevia Capello, 1867
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Microchirus (Zevaia) azevia (Capello, 1867) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body oval. Upper eye less than its own diameter from dorsal profile of head. Anterior nostril on blind side not enlarged, its distance from front margin of head about 1.2 times in its distance from cleft of mouth; anterior nostril on eyed side with a backward-pointing tube hardly reaching to front border of lower eye. Dorsal fin beginning near vertical through front border of upper eye, with 71-86 finrays; pectoral fin on eyed side with 6-8 finrays, on blind side shorter; anal finrays 57-68; caudal fin separate from last dorsal and anal finrays, lateral line with 107-128 pored scales, the supra-temporal branch forming an angular S-shape, the ascending part running upward and backward. Vertebrae 40-43. Colour: eyed side uniformly greyish to reddish-brown, with 5-6 ocelli in juveniles of 8-10 cm. Size: to 40 cm SL.
Habitat: demersal on mud and sand of continental shelf, from the shore down to 250 m. Food: wide range of small benthic invertebrates, mainly amphipods and polychaetes (Algeria). Reproduction: no data.
Distribution: eastern Atlantic (Portugal southward; a single record from south-west of the British Isles) and the Mediterranean (western part, Spain and Algeria). Elsewhere, southward to Senegal.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). Bauzá-Rullán, 1956: 121, pl. 7 (fig. 6-19).