''Spicara maena'', the blotched picarel, 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 ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. The male grows to a maximum length of about , and the female reaches . This fish is fished commercially in some areas. Genetic studies have confirmed that Spicara flexuosa is a separate species, not a synonym for Spicara maena

Description

''Spicara maena'' is a fairly deep-bodied fish, with males reaching a maximum length of about and females . The upper jaw is protrusible and the mouth contains several rows of small teeth. The single dorsal fin has eleven spines and twelve soft rays and the anal fin has three spines and nine or ten soft rays. There are sixty-eight to seventy scales on the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

. This fish is blue-grey above with silvery sides and a scattering of small dark spots. There is usually one large dark blotch above the tip of the pectoral fin. ''Spicara maena'' is a rather variable species. It has many synonyms across its wide range and is often confused with the common picarel ''

Spicara smaris ''Spicara smaris'', one of the picarels, is a species of ray-finned fish native to the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. It grows to a maximum length of about ; females are usually smaller than males. Description ' ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

''Spicara maena'' is found in the Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Its Atlantic range extends from Morocco and the Canary Islands northwards to Portugal. Its depth range is about . It lives near the seabed over sandy and muddy bottoms and in

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families (Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the orde ...

(''Posidonia oceanica'') meadows.

Biology

''Spicara maena'' is a gregarious fish that moves in schools and feeds on small benthic invertebrates and

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

. It is a

protogynous hermaphrodite Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany) is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish, gastropods, and plants. Sequential hermaphroditism occurs when the individual changes its sex at some point in its life. In particular, ...

, starting life as a female and later changing into a male. In a study in the

Gulf of İzmir The Gulf of İzmir ( tr, İzmir Körfezi), formerly known as the Gulf of Smyrna, is a gulf on the Aegean Sea, with its inlet between the Karaburun Peninsula and the mainland area of Foça. It is in length by in breadth, with an excellent anchor ...

in the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

by Soykan and colleagues it was found that there are almost five times as many females as males and that the change of sex on average takes place within the length range and that all fish longer than are male. A study off the eastern central coast of the Adriatic Sea by Dulčić and colleagues found that the sex conversion on average happened between and that any fish longer than were male. The females become mature at the age of two years and spawning takes place between March and June in the Aegean, and between August and October further west in the Mediterranean. The male digs a hollow on the seabed and the female lays eggs with a sticky surface in this nest.

References

External links

* * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2091291 Sparidae Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus