Relevant synonyms None Misidentification Etrumeus teres Meristic formula D, 17-12; A, 10-13; P, 15-17; V, 8;  photo : David Darom

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body elongated and cylindrical in its anterior part. Belly rounded and smooth without series of scutes. Dorsal fin origin before midpoint. Pelvic fin situated behind dorsal fin base. Large head. Eye covered with adipose eyelid. A single W-shaped pelvic scute at the base of pelvic fins. Scales very deciduous, easily detached. color : dark blue on back with silvery flanks. size : common 15 - 28 cm (max 22 cm). DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Spratelloides delicatulus and Dussumieria elopsoides: pelvic fin origin under dorsal fin base. Other clupeids: series of scutes along the belly; lack of adipose eyelid. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Schooling species. Feeds on zooplankton. Eggs and larvae pelagic. habitat : pelagic, mainly inshore.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Israel, 1963. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : several separate populations in Red Sea and eastern Africa, Japan, Southern Australia, eastern Pacific and western Atlantic. Mediterranean : recorded first in Israel (Whitehead, 1963). Successive records in Egypt (El Sayed, 1994), Iskenderun, Turkey (Basusta, et al., 1997) and Cyprus (Golani, 2000). For reason to consider it as Lessepsian see Golani (2000). Recorded in Rhodes and in Lampedusa. ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Very common along the Israeli and Cypriot coasts. speculated reasons for success : unknown. MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Since the 1990's, caught in large numbers by purse seine along the Israeli coast. (Very important in the Gulf of Suez fishery).

KEY REFERENCES Basusta N., Erdem Ü. and Mater S., 1997. Iskenderun körfezi'nde yeni bir Lesepsiyen göçmen bahk türü; Kizilgözlü Sardalya, Etrumeus teres (Dekay, 1842). Mediterranean Fisheries Congress, 9-11 April, 1997, Izmir, P.921-924. El-Sayed R.S., 1994. Check-list of Egyptian Mediterranean fishes. National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt. 77 + IX pp. Golani D., 2000. The Lessepsian migrant, the Red-eye round herring Etrumeus teres (DeKay, 1842), a new record from Cyprus. Zoology in the Middle East, 20: 61-64.   Whitehead P.J.P., 1963. A revision of the recent round herrings (Pisces: Dussumieriidae). Bulletin of the British Museum of Natural History (Zoology), 10: 305-380. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: November 2013 ©ciesm 2002