Author: Rafinesque, 1810
Sudis hyalina Rafinesque, 1810
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Sudis hyalina Rafinesque, 1810 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body moderately elongate, its depth about 8-9 times in SL. Head strongly compressed about 3 times in SL; snout long, about 3 times eye and more than half head length; tip of lower jaw distinctly curved upward, hind tip of premaxilla behind nostril; large teeth in lower jaw, fixed and armed with serrated edges; gillrakers tooth-like, on bony bases. Dorsal fin small, well behind midpoint of body, with 12-16 finrays; small adipose dorsal fin near tail; pectoral fins very long, about as long as head and reaching near to pelvic fin base, with 13-15 finrays; pelvic fins a little in front of dorsal fin origin, with 9 finrays; anal fin far back, with 21-24 finrays, no adipose fin in front. Lateral line scales 59-77. Vertebrae 59-60. Colour: silvery pink. Size: to more than 100 cm; still juvenile at 40 cm.
Habitat: meso- to bathypelagic. Food: carnivorous. Reproduction: probably spawns near surface in temperate to tropical waters; juveniles of 15-43 mm have a shorter snout, but longer pectoral fins (reaching to pelvic fin base).
Distribution: northward to about 50° N; also Mediterranean. Elsewhere, southward to about 40° S and similarly on western side of Atlantic.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Sanzo, 1917a: 1-7, fig. 1-5 | Tortonese, 1956: 900-902 | Rofen, 1966: 455-457.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.