Order ATHERINIFORMES ATHERINIDAE Silversides - Archive ouverte HAL
Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2016

Order ATHERINIFORMES ATHERINIDAE Silversides

Résumé

Diagnostic characters: Small, elongate fish, rarely exceeding 15 cm in length. Body elongate and somewhat compressed. Short head, generally flattened dorsally, large eyes, sharp nose, mouth small, oblique and in terminal position, jaws subequal, reaching or slightly exceeding the anterior margin of the eye; premaxilla with ascending process of variable length, with lateral process present or absent; ramus of dentary bone elevated posteriorly or indistinct from anterior part of lower jaw; fine, small and sharp teeth on the jaws, on the roof of mouth (vomer, palatine, pterygoid) or on outside of mouth; 10 to 26 gill rakers long and slender on lower arm of first gill arch. Two well-separated dorsal fins, the first with 6 to 10 thin, flexible spines, located approximately in the middle of the body; the second dorsal and anal fins with a single small weak spine, 1 unbranched soft ray and a variable number of soft rays. Anal fin always originating slightly in advance of second dorsal fin; pectoral fins inserted high on the flanks, directly behind posterior rim of gill cover, with spine greatly reduced and first ray much thicker than those following. Abdomninal pelvic fins with 1 spine and 5 soft rays; forked caudal fin; anus away from the origin of the anal fin. Relatively large scales, cycloid (smooth). Lateral line absent. Colour: back greenish to bluish speckled with black dots, translucent with scales delineated by small chromatophores above mid-lateral band; sides of head and body, as well as abdomen silvery, flanks often iridescent; brilliant mid-lateral sideband, sometimes highlighted in black, running along the middle of the body from upper margin of pectoral fin to the base of the caudal fin. Habitat, biology, and fisheries: Silversides inhabit the surface and coastal waters of all tropical and temperate seas, near the surface to about 1 to 2 m, often forming large schools. They penetrate estuaries and brackish waters, while others live also in freshwater (Atherina boyeri). They feed on plankton at sea and on small benthic invertebrates in the coastal lagoons. Eggs are moderately large (up to about 1 mm) and have many filaments with which they adhere in compact mass to algae, rocks or bottom sand. Although edible, silversides are minimally consumed due to their small size, but are still caught for use as bait. They are caught in artisanal fisheries using beach seines, lift nets, gillnets and traps. Outside the area, silversides are found regularly in the markets of Italy, France, Spain and Turkey, and are also occasionally marketed pickled. Only 2 Old World species (Atherina breviceps, Atherinomorus lacunosus) are large enough to be valuable for human consumption; other species are important as forage for commercial fisheries and used as bait and in dried cat food.

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Dates et versions

hal-02331719 , version 1 (19-04-2020)

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Luis Tito de Morais, M. Sylla, W. Ivantsoff. Order ATHERINIFORMES ATHERINIDAE Silversides. Carpenter Kent E.; De Angelis Nicoletta. The living marine resources of the Eastern Central Atlantic. Vol. 3 : Bony fishes, part 1 : Elopiformes to Scorpaeniformes, FAO, pp.2111-2118, 2016, Species Identification Guide for Fishery Purposes - FAO, 978-92-5-109266-8. ⟨hal-02331719⟩
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