The white-headed hagfish (''Myxine ios'') 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 ...

jawless fish Agnatha (, Ancient Greek 'without jaws') is an infraphylum of jawless fish in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both present (cyclostomes) and extinct (conodonts and ostracoderms) species. Among recent animals, cyclostomes ...

of the family Myxinidae (hagfish). Its scientific name alludes to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS),

Wormley, Surrey Wormley is a village in Surrey, England in the parish of Witley, around Witley station, off the A283 Petworth Road about SSW of Godalming. History Expansion from archetypal hamlet Wormley developed primarily as a result of the construction in ...

, which supplied the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

Distribution

''Myxine ios'' is a marine

bathydemersal Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 They occ ...

fish, living at depths of . It is non-migratory, living in the

North Atlantic 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 and ...

waters off

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and the western Sahara.

Description

The white-headed hagfish may grow up to long. It is a seven- gilled hagfish; it can be distinguished from related species by its large number of tooth cusps: between 44 and 51. The Irish ''M. ios'' population is distinguished from the southern variety by its white head and whitish middorsal or midventral line.

Behaviour

''M. ios'' is a

scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding b ...

of dead or disabled fish, which it bores into. Its eggs are large, .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4732911 Myxinidae Fish of the North Atlantic Fish described in 1981 Taxa named by Bo Fernholm