Spotted snake spine back
Spotted snake spine back | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spotted snake spine ( Leptoclinus maculatus ) |
||||||||||||
Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
Leptoclinus | ||||||||||||
Gill , 1861 | ||||||||||||
Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
Leptoclinus maculatus | ||||||||||||
( Fries , 1838) |
The spotted snake spine ( Leptoclinus maculatus ) is a slender marine fish native to cold regions of the northern Atlantic and northern Pacific. Its Atlantic distribution area extends from Spitsbergen , the White Sea and the southern Barents Sea south along the Scandinavian coast from Finnmark to the Skagerrak . It is also found on the south and west coast of Greenland and near Iceland . The Pacific population occurs in the northern Sea of Japan , in the Sea of Okhotsk along the Aleutian Islands and the Alaskan coast to Puget Sound in the northwest of the US state of Washington . This population is separated from the nominate form by some authors as an independent subspecies Leptoclinus maculatus diaphanocarus .
features
The spotted snake spine has an eel-like, elongated body that is a maximum of 20 cm long. The caudal fin is rounded. The dorsal fin extends almost the entire length of the body. It is supported by 57 to 60 fin spines , soft rays are missing. The anal fin has one to two fin spines and 34 to 36 soft rays. Their length is half the length of the body. The lower five rays of the pectoral fins are elongated. Their ends are not connected by a fin membrane. The fish are of a yellowish-gray basic color. The body is patterned with numerous, irregular black-brown spots.
Way of life
Spotted snake spine backs live on sandy or muddy seabeds at depths between two and 600 meters, usually above 170 meters. They feed on small crustaceans and worms.
literature
- Bent J. Muus, Jørgen G. Nielsen: The marine fish of Europe in the North Sea, Baltic Sea and Atlantic. Kosmos, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-440-07804-3 .
Web links
- Spotted snake Sawback on Fishbase.org (English)