The cuckoo wrasse (''Labrus mixtus'') is a species of

wrasse The wrasses are a family, Labridae, of marine fish, many of which are brightly colored. The family is large and diverse, with over 600 species in 81 genera, which are divided into 9 subgroups or tribes. They are typically small, most of them le ...

native to the eastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

from

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 ...

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

, including the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

and

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

. It is also found in the

Mediterranean Sea 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 ea ...

. They occur in weedy, rocky areas mostly between . This species is an occasional food fish for local populations but is also popular as a game fish. It is also a popular fish for display in public aquaria.

Description

The cuckoo wrasse has a long, pointed head, its body is slimmer and more elongated in shape than the ballan wrasse (''Labrus bergylta''), with which it is

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

in the north eastern Atlantic. It is a very colourful fish which shows clear

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 ...

. The young males and the females are coloured with a mix of pink, orange and red. The females possess three black spots on their back to the rear of the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

, with white colouration between then which stretch to the tail which are not present on males. The males have blue heads and orange bodies, blue stripes and mottled patterns run along the body and there are blue lines on the margins of the fins. Like the ballan wrasse, the cuckoo wrasse has a small mouth with thick fleshy, folded lips and a single row of canine-like teeth in each jaw. The maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

for a male is and for females it is , although the common total length for males is . The long dorsal fin is even in height along its length and this species has large scales which are bigger than the pupil of the eye.

Distribution

The cuckoo wrasse occurs in the north east Atlantic Ocean along the coast of Europe from Norway south to

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

and along the Atlantic coast of north Africa south to Senegal. It occurs off the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

, the

and

too. Its range extends into the

as far as

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, where it is common, but it is absent from the

Levantine Sea The Levantine Sea (Arabic: بحر الشام, tr, Levanten Denizi, el, Θάλασσα του Λεβάντε) is the easternmost part of the Mediterranean Sea. Geography The Levantine Sea is bordered by Turkey in the north and north-east co ...

Habitat and biology

The cuckoo wrasse is found where there are rocks and other hard substrates in the algal zone at depths of , but are mainly found between . It is also associated with area dominated by

coralline algae Coralline algae are red algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterized by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls. The colors of these algae are most typically pink, or some other shade of re ...

. This species shows a preference for slightly deeper water than the ballan wrasse, with which it is sympatric off western Europe and only occasionally enters very shallow inshore waters. In the Azores adults of this species is normally not encountered above depths of , although juveniles may be found at shallower depths occasionally. They are normally found occurring as solitary individuals or in pairs with young. They are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

and the female can lay up to a thousand eggs in a dish-shaped nest made by the male from algae, which he then guards. The cuckoo wrasse is a protogynous hermaphrodite, and females can change sex into males, a process which takes around seven months. The diet consists mainly of

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 but it will also take fishes, molluscs and worms/

Etymology and species description

The name cuckoo wrasse comes from Cornish fishermen who associated the blue markings with bluebell flowers. In the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language, Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a List of revived languages, revived language, having become Extinct language, extinct as a livin ...

, a bluebell is ''bleujenn an gog'', literally "the cuckoo flower".Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, Volume 13,

VEB Verlag Enzyklopädie VEB may stand for: * Venturing and Emerging Brands, a division of Coca-Cola * Virtual business * Venezuelan , currency of Venezuela between 1879 and 2007, ISO 4217 code VEB * ' (German for "People-owned enterprise"), a state-owned workplace or est ...

, 1965 The cuckoo wrasse was formally described by Carolus Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the system, now known as binomial nomen ...

'' published in 1758, Linnaeus gave the type locality as "Liburnia", which is modern

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; hr, Dalmacija ; it, Dalmazia; see #Name, names in other languages) is one of the four historical region, historical regions of Croatia, alongside Croatia proper, Slavonia, and Istria. Dalmatia is a narrow belt of the east shore of ...

, Croatia.

Human usage

The cuckoo wrasse is occasionally eaten but wrasse flesh is not popular in many places, for example in Britain, so it is not much in demand from commercial fisheries. It is fished by recreational anglers and, as they are long lived fish their populations can be affected by too high a catch, they are fished for on a

catch and release Catch and release is a practice within recreational fishing where after capture, often a fast measurement and weighing of the fish is performed, followed by posed photography as proof of the catch, and then the fish are unhooked and returned ...

basis. In Norway, cuckoo wrasse (along with other wrasse species) are used in salmon farming to eat salmon lice from the farmed fish. This leads to overfishing in some areas, and a noticeable decrease in population in selected areas.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1292422

cuckoo wrasse The cuckoo wrasse (''Labrus mixtus'') is a species of wrasse native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean from Norway to Senegal, including the Azores and Madeira. It is also found in the Mediterranean Sea. They occur in weedy, rocky areas mostly between ...

Fish of the East Atlantic Fish of the Mediterranean Sea