Relevant synonyms Leiognathus klunzingeri Equula klunzingeri Leiognathus mediterraneus Misidentification None Meristic formula D, VII + 15-16; A, III+15-16; P, 18-20; GR, 15-18.  photo : David Darom

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body oblong, very compressed. A single dorsal fin, the second spine enlarged. Caudal fin forked. Anal fin long, more than half of SL, the second spine enlarged. Bony ridge on top of the head just in front of dorsal fin origin. Mouth strongly protrusible, tubular and directed downwards when protracted. Jaw with villiform teeth. No vomer nor palatine teeth. color : body silvery grey with white belly. Dark spots on the back and the upper flanks. size : common 4-8 cm (max. 11 cm). DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Carangidae: mouth not strongly protrusible. Two detached anal spines. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Schooling species. Feeds on benthic invertebrates. Spawning season in the summer, eggs and larvae planktonic. habitat : benthic in continental shelf to 70 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Syria, 1931. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : reported only from the Red Sea, but, since Leiognathus badly needs taxonomic revision, the distribution range might change. Mediterranean : recorded first in Syria (Gruvel, 1931) ; successively recorded in Israel (Liebman, 1934), Rhodes (Tortonese, 1937), Turkey (Erazi, 1942), Lampedusa Island (Ben-Tuvia, 1966)*, N-E Greece (Papaconstantinou and Tortonese, 1980) and Egypt (El Sayed, 1994). Dulcic and Pallaoro (2002) reported the occurence of this species in the southern Adriatic. * Note : a single specimen was mentioned by Ben-Tuvia (1966, from a record by Gilat, south-west off Lampedusa); as there is no other report from the Sicily Channel in the last 36 years, the presence of this species is considered doubtful. ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Very common in Eastern Mediterranean. speculated reasons for success : unknown. MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Caught in large number as by catch in trawl no commercial value due to its small size.

KEY REFERENCES Avsar D., Bingal F. and Ünsal M., 1988. Application of mahlanobis distance function for the morphometric separation of Silverbelly (Leiognathus klunzingeri Steindachner) stocks in the Gulf of Marsin. Acta Adriatica, 29 (1/2): 153-160. Dulcic J. and Pallaoro A., 2002. First record of the lessepsian migrant Leiognathus klunzingeri (Pisces: Leiognathidae) from the Adriatic Sea. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc. U.K., 82: 523-524. Gruvel A., 1931. Les Etats de Syrie. Richesses marines et fluviales, Exploitation actuelle, Avenir. 72-134 pp. Société des Editions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales. Paris. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

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