The Spanish ling (''Molva macrophthalma''), also called the Mediterranean ling and even

blue ling The blue ling (''Molva dypterygia'') is a member of the cod family from the North Atlantic. It is usually 70 to 110 cm long, but the maximum length is 155 cm. Blue ling feed on fish (flatfishes, gobies, rocklings) and crustaceans and be ...

, is a species of fish in the family Lotidae.

Description

It maximum length is .

Habitat

Spanish ling lives in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and western Mediterranean; it is common in the Azores. It lives at moderate shallow waters, being recorded at depths of in the

Ionian Sea The Ionian Sea ( el, Ιόνιο Πέλαγος, ''Iónio Pélagos'' ; it, Mar Ionio ; al, Deti Jon ) is an elongated bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is connected to the Adriatic Sea to the north, and is bounded by Southern Italy, including C ...

, and has also been found in the Aegean Sea.

Behaviour

It feeds on

bony fish Osteichthyes (), popularly referred to as the bony fish, is a diverse superclass of fish that have skeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondrichthyes, which have skeletons primarily composed of cartilag ...

squid True squid are molluscs with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight arms, and two tentacles in the superorder Decapodiformes, though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also called squid despite not strictly fitting t ...

and

lobster Lobsters are a family (biology), family (Nephropidae, Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae) of marine crustaceans. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs ...

s. Known parasites include '' Lernaeocera'' copepods.

References

Lotidae Fish of the North Atlantic Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish described in 1810 Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque {{Rayfinned-fish-stub