The boarfish (''Capros aper'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of fish in the family

Caproidae Caproidae, or boarfishes, are a small family of marine fishes comprising two genera and 12 species. They were formerly placed in the order Zeiformes with the dories, but are now placed with the Perciformes since they have many perciform charac ...

, the only known member of its

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

. Its scientific name is from Greek κᾰ́προς (''kapros'') and Latin ''aper'', both meaning "

wild boar The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...

Description

''Capros aper'' commonly reaches a length of about 13 cm in males, with a maximum length of about 30 cm. The weight reaches about 85 g. The female is larger than male. This fish has large eyes, a quite long snout, and a very protractile mouth that forms a short tube when extended. The general form of the body can be defined as rhombic, quite deep, and compressed. The dorsal fin is unique, the caudal fin is rather large and spatulated with a convex edge, the ventral fins are very large and have a thorny spine, and the pectoral fins are quite small. The color of the body is reddish orange, sometimes with three wide darker bands, one behind the eye, one in the center of the body, and one on the caudal peduncle. During the breeding season,

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

is striking; the male's body is covered with sinuous orange lines and the dorsal and ventral fins become red, while the female is orange with a faint dark band in the middle of the body and has belly and basal part of the ventral fins white silver, and the final part of the ventral fins is rather dark orange. It feeds on

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, especially

copepod Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat (ecology), habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthos, benthic (living on the ocean floor) ...

s and mysid shrimps, or on

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...

s and worms.

Distribution

This species is widespread in the Eastern Atlantic, from western

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, Skagerrak,

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

, and western

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

. It is also present in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

, especially in the western part.

Habitat

''Capros aper'' usually lives close to the floor of the sea (

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

), mainly on muddy bottoms or near rocky bottoms or

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...

. It forms numerous herds at a certain distance from the substrate, but occasionally it can reach a depth of about 700 m, especially at night.

References

* Joseph S. Nelson, Fishes of the World, John Wiley & Sons, 2006 * Costa F. ''Atlante dei pesci dei mari italiani'' Mursia 1991 * Louisy P., Trainito E. ''Guida all'identificazione dei pesci marini d'Europa e del Mediterraneo.'' Milano, Il Castello, 2006.

External links

Fishbase

Taxonomicon

Marine species identification

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1278796 Caproidae Monotypic fish genera Fish described in 1758 Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of Europe Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus