Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 50(2): 223-226, doi: 10.3750/AIEP/02842
First record of Physiculus dalwigki (Actinopterygii: Gadiformes: Moridae) from the Tunisian coast (central Mediterranean Sea)
C. Capapé, S. Rafrafi-Nouira, Y. Diatta, C. ReynaudCorresponding author: C. Capapé © C. Capapé, S. Rafrafi-Nouira, Y. Diatta, C. Reynaud. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Capapé C, Rafrafi-Nouira S, Diatta Y, Reynaud C (2020) First record of Physiculus dalwigki (Actinopterygii: Gadiformes: Moridae) from the Tunisian coast (central Mediterranean Sea). Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria 50(2): 223-226. https://doi.org/10.3750/AIEP/02842 |  |
Abstract
A specimen of Physiculus dalwigki Kaup, 1758 measuring 218 mm in total length, 190 mm in standard length, and weighing 90 g was caught off the northern Tunisian coast. This capture constitutes the first record of this fish from the Tunisian coast. The specimen is described including morphological measurements, meristic counts, and color. Due to a lack of records, the real status of the species in the Tunisian waters still remains questionable. Physiculus dalwigki occurs only off northern Spain and south to the Strait of Gibraltar in the waters surrounding Madera and the Azores Islands, and in the Mediterranean Sea from Nice (southern France) to the Tunisian coast. Therefore, it appears that P. dalwigki is displaying a disjoint distribution with the exclusion of a large western region of the Mediterranean Sea.
Keywords
description, morphometric measurements, meristic counts, fragmented distribution, deep waters