Author: (Brünnich, 1768)
Trigloporus lastoviza (Brünnich, 1768)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Trigloporus lastoviza (Bonnaterre, 1788) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: head large, triangular, bony, with many ridges and spines, but without a deep occipital groove. First dorsal fin with 9-11 spines; anterior edge of first dorsal spine smooth; second dorsal and anal fins with 14-17 rays. Cleithral spine short. Body covered with distinct, transverse ridges of skin originating at the lateral line. Breast variably naked to fully scaled, belly fully scaled; lateral line scales enlarged and keeled, armed with small spines. Vertebrae 33-35 (12-14 precaudal and 20-22 caudal). Total gillrakers on first gill arch 4-8. Colour: red dorsally, pale ventrally with dark spots or blotches on head and back; pectoral fins greyish with large dark blue spots. Size: to 40 cm, usually to 20 cm.
Habitat: found on rough rocky grounds or sand and muddy sand near rocks from the shoreline to about 150 m depth. Behaviour: may be gregarious near the surface. Food: small crustaceans. Reproduction: spawning in midsummer, from June to August.
Distribution: in eastern Atlantic from British Isles (rare in North Sea, one record near Sweden) to the Cape of Good Hope, the Azores, Madeira; Mediterranean except Black Sea; outside the Clofnam area, east coast of Africa from Cape of Good Hope up to Mozambique.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Marion, 1894: 119 | Holt, 1899: 25 | Lo Bianco, 1909: 759 | Hefford, 1910: 13 | Clark, 1914: 377 | Padoa, 1956: 640.
Otoliths (sagitta). Sanz Echeverría, 1929: 286, pl. 13 (fig. 1) | Priol, 1932: 227, fig. 4 | Chaine and Duvergier, 1934: 97, pl. 1.