Hymenocephalus italicus
No common name
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Gadiformes (Cod, Hakes and others)
Macrouridae (Grenadiers)
Hymenocephalus
Hymenocephalus italicus
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
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Characters
Very elongate and attenuated body; moderate-sized head; subterminal mouth; snout blunt; jaws large, extending to posterior margin of orbits; head 15% of TL; snout 23-29% of head length; orbit 32-38%; premaxilla length 44-54%; chin barbel 10-15%; body depth at first dorsal fin origin 61-80% of head length; jaws with narrow band of small, blunt, depressible teeth; first gill slit greatly restricted; gill rakers tuberculate, 21-25; branchiostegal rays 7; pectoral fin moderate length, 13-16 rays; first dorsal fin 11-14 rays, first ray splintlike, second ray smooth and spinous; second dorsal fin distinctly separated from first, with shorter rays than anal fin; pelvic fin 10-12 rays, first ray elongated; abdomen with long, tubular light organ; scales large, deciduous, may have spinules; swim bladder with two retia mirabilia.
Jaws, gill covers, branchiostegal membranes, and nape dark; remainder of head light; abdomen dark; posterior parts of trunk and tail dark with small, densely distributed melanophores dorsally, and light with large, sparsely distributed melanophores ventrally; isthmus, shoulder girdle, and chest patterned with striae consisting of fine, parallel dark lines over silvery ground color.
Distribution
Straits of Florida, Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
Habitat Associations
Warm temperate to tropical Atlantic Ocean, 100-800 m
Biology
Pelagic copepods, euphausiids, gammarid amphipods, shrimps, ostracods, cumaceans, and small fishes
200 mm TL
Most common at depths less than 500 m (Ref. 1371). Feeds predominantly on pelagic copepods, to a lesser extent on euphausiids and gammarian amphipods, and to a minor extent on shrimps, ostracods, cumaceans, other small crustaceans, and small fish (Ref. 1371). Due to its small size, it is not of significant interest to fisheries (Ref. 1371).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2012-07-11. Resilience: Medium (K=0.18; tmax=9).
References
Marshall and Iwamoto 1973
Uyeno et al. 1983
Geistdoerfer 1986
Cohen et al. 1990
Cohen, D.M., T. Inada, T. Iwamoto and N. Scialabba (1990) FAO species catalogue. Vol. 10. Gadiform fishes of the world (Order Gadiformes). An annotated and illustrated catalogue of cods, hakes, grenadiers and other gadiform fishes known to date. FAO Fish. Synop. 125(10). Rome: FAO. 442 p.
Bauchot, M.-L. (1987) Poissons osseux. p. 891-1421. In W. Fischer, M.L. Bauchot and M. Schneider (eds.) Fiches FAO d'identification pour les besoins de la pêche. (rev. 1). Méditerranée et mer Noire. Zone de pêche 37. Vol. II. Commission des Communautés Européennes and FAO, Rome.
Geistdoerfer, P. (1990) Macrouridae. p. 541-563. In J.C. Quero, J.C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.
Macpherson, E. (1979) Relations trophiques des poissons dans la Méditerranée occidentale. Rapp. Comm. Int. Explor. Sci. Mer Méditerr. 25/26, 49-58.
Schwarzhans, W. (2014) Head and otolith morphology of the genera Hymenocephalus, Hymenogadus and Spicomacrurus (Macrouridae), with the description of three new species. Zootaxa 3888(1):1-73.
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