Relevant synonyms Sphyraena obtusata Misidentification None Meristic formula D1, V; D2, 9-10; A, I + 9; P, 13; V, I + 5; LL, 82-86; GR, 2.  photo : David Darom

SHORT DESCRIPTION Body very elongated. Two well-separated dorsal fins, the first with 5 spines, first spine is the longest, the rest progressively decreasing in size. Second dorsal fin origin in front of anal fin origin. Caudal fin forked. Pectoral fin reaching the vertical of dorsal fin origin. Pelvic fin below pectoral fin. Large head with pointed snout. Long and pointed jaws, lower slightly projected. Large fang-like teeth in variable sizes in the jaws and on the palatine (but not on the vomer). Large eye. Small cycloid scales. Lateral line, almost straight. color : yellowish grey on the back, white silver on the belly. Caudal fin yellow. size : common 12-25 cm (max. 35 cm). DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTICS Sphyraena flavicauda: pectoral fin tip not reaching the vertical of first dorsal origin. Sphyraena sphyraena and S. viridensis: pelvic fin located behind pectoral fin tip. Mugilidae: four dorsal spines. Short snout. Atherinidae: short snout and small mouth. Sillaginidae: small mouth. Dorsal fins very close to each other. BIOLOGY / ECOLOGY Forms large schools. Feeds mainly near the bottom, chiefly on school fishes, such as clupeids and anchovy and, to a lesser extent, on crustaceans. Spawning season from April to September. Eggs and larvae planktonic. Juveniles often observed in very shallow waters. habitat : bentho-pelagic to depth of 50 m.

1st MEDITERRANEAN RECORD Palestine, 1931. DISTRIBUTION Worldwide : Indo-Pacific. Red Sea, eastern Africa, including Madagascar and the Seychelles to China and Northern Australia. Mediterranean : recorded first in Palestine, as misidentification of Belone acus (Spicer, 1931) ; successively recorded in Iskenderun, Turkey (Akyüz, 1957); Lebanon (George et al., 1964), Mersin, Turkey (Ben-Tuvia, 1966), Libya (Stirn, 1970), Malta (Lanfranco, 1993) and southern Adriatic (Pallaoro and Dulcic, 2001). More recently recorded in Kusadasi Bay, Aegean Sea, Turkey and Diafani, Karpathos, Greece. ESTABLISHMENT SUCCESS Very common. speculated reasons for success : unknown. MODE OF INTRODUCTION Via the Suez Canal. IMPORTANCE TO HUMANS Contributes greatly to trawl and purse seine fishery.

KEY REFERENCES Golani D. and Ben-Tuvia A., 1995. Lessepsian migration and the Mediterranean fisheries of Israel. In: Armantrout, N.B. (ed.). Conditions of the World's Aquatic Habits. Proceedings of the World Fisheries Congress, Theme 1, Oxford & IBH Pub. Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, pp. 279-289. Pallaoro A. and Dulcic J., 2001. First record of Sphyraena chrystaenia (Klunzinger, 1884) (Pisces, Sphyraenidae) from the Adriatic Sea. J. Fish Biol., 59: 179-182. Spicer I.J., 1931. Fisheries. In: Report of the Department of Agriculture and Forests for the years 1927-30. Printing Office, Russian Building, Jerusalem, pp. 159-160. FEEDBACK / COMMENTS TO AUTHORS

Last update of the species sheet: November2013 ©ciesm 2002