Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)

Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Diagnosis: fairly elongate, snout short, upper jaw reaching to or slightly beyond hind margin of eye. Teeth well developed, but absent on shaft of vomer, so that centre of palate toothless. Gillrakers 18-30. Pyloric caeca 30-44. Dorsal finrays iii-iv 8-11, with a small adipose fin behind; pelvic finrays i 7-9, base below posterior part of dorsal fin; anal finrays iii-iv 7-9; caudal fin slightly forked. Scales minute, 190-240 in lateral line. Vertebrae 60-71. Colour: back dark bluish, flanks bluish-grey or green with small red or orange spots, belly often silvery, becoming red in spawning males (but yellowish in females and immature fishes). Size: to 88 cm and 15 kg, usually 30-50 cm.

Habitat: anadromous forms spend a considerable proportion of their span at sea; non-migratory populations remain in freshwater (lakes and rivers). Food: fishes (small gadids and cottids, capelin, sand-eels, smelt) and crustaceans (34 amphipod and mysid species recorded); freshwater populations on planktonic crustaceans, amphipods, molluscs, insects, also fishes. Reproduction: ascending rivers between July and September according to locality, spawning in September to November, usually in rivers at 4-11 years old; adults remain in rivers until winter ice breaks, returning to sea with the first floods; juveniles migrate to sea at 2-3 years, rarely at 4-5 years.

Distribution: North Atlantic southward to southern Norway, also Icelanc and southern Greenland, not far from river mouths; non-migratory and land-locked relict populations well to south of this (British Isles, central France). Elsewhere, circumpolar.

Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). Chaine, 1956: 163, pl. 1.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Superclass Gnathostomata
Class Osteichthyes
Order Clupeiformes
Suborder Salmonoidei
Family Salmonidae
Genus Salvelinus
Species Salvelinus alpinus

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Salvelinus alpinus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Synonyms:

Salmo alpinus Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. X:309 ('Habitat in Lapponiae, Angliae alpibus, solus').
Salmo Kundsha Pallas, 1776, Reise . . ., 3: 32 ('fast anderthalb Tagereisen von der eigentlichen Mündung des Bachs Kara'), 706 ('In sinubus Oceani arctici aestate abundat, fluvios non subintrans').
Salmo Leucomaenis Pallas, 1811, Zoogr. rosso-asiat., 3: 356-359, partly ('in sinu Karae borealis Oceani, in infera regione Chatangae fluvii').
Salmo alpinus: Day, 1882, 2: 112, pl. CXVII (fig. l) (partly).
Salmo umbla var. alpinus: Smitt, 1895, 2: 842, 845.
Salmo salvelinus alpinus: Alm in Andersson et al., 1942, 2: 625, pl. 115 (col.).
Salvelinus alpinus: Berg, 1948,1: 270 Andriashev, 1954: 96, fig. 45.


Common names:

arctic char [En]
char [En]
fjaeldørred [Da]
goletz [Ru]
omble chevalier [Fr]
røye [No]
Saibling [De]
riddervis [Ne]

Andersson, K. A., ed. 1942. Fiskar och fiske i Norden. 1, Fiskar och fiske i havet. Stockholm, xvi+540 pp., 83 col. pl., 230 fig. 2, Fiskar och Fiske i Sjör och Floder: pp. xvii-xxiv+541-1016, fig. 231-426, col. pl. 84-128. (New edition in 1954, 2: pp. 425-769, 190 fig., 42 col. pl.)

Andriashev, A. P. 1954. Ryby severnykh morei SSSR. Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR. Moskwa-Leningrad. (English trans. 1964, Jerusalem, IPST, 617 pp., 300 fig.)

Berg, L. S. 1948-1949. Ryby presnykh vod SSSR i sopredel'nykh stran, 4 ed., 1, Opred. pofaune SSSR, no. 27, 1948: pp. 1-466, fig. 1-281; 2, ibid., no. 29, 1949: pp. 467-925, fig. 282-674; 3, ibid., no. 30, 1949: pp. 927-1382, fig. 675-946, map (in Russian).

Chaine, J. 1956. Recherches sur les otolithes des Poissons. . . Bull Cent. Étud. Rech. scient. Biarritz, 1: pp. 159-275, 6 pl.

Day, F. 1880-1884. The Fishes of Great Britain and Ireland. London-Edinburgh, 2 vol., cxii+336 pp., 5 +7 fig., 92 pl. and 388 pp., 87 pl. 1880: 1(1): pp. 1-64, pl. I-XXVII; 1881: 1(2) (3): pp. 65-240, pl. XXVIII-LXVIII; 1882: 1(4): pp. 241-336, pl. LXIX-XCII; 2 (5): pp. 1-96, pl. XCIII-CXVI; 1883: 2 (6): pp. 97-176, pl. CXVII-CXXXII; 2 (7): pp. 177-272, pl. CXXXIII-CXLVIII; 1884: 2 (8): pp. 273-368, pl. CXLIX-CLXXIX.

Johnson, L. 1980. The Arctic charr, Salvelinus alpinus. In: Balon (ed.), Charrs, Salmonid fishes of the genus Salvelinus. Junk, Amsterdam, p. 15-98, 16 fig., 11 tables.

Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae, ed. X, vol. 1, 824 pp. Nantes & Pisces: pp. 230-338. (Reprint, 1956, London.)

Pallas, P. S. 1771-1776. Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des russischen Reiches, 1768 und 1769sten Jahre, St Petersb., 3 vol. 1, 1771: 504+12 unnumb. pp.; 3, 1776: 760 pp.

Pallas, P. S. 1811 [probably 1814]. Zoographia rosso-asiatica, sistens omnium animalium in extenso Imperio Rossico et adjacentibus maribus observatorum recensionem, domicilia, mores et descriptiones anatomen atque icones plurimorum, 3 vol. Petropoli, 3, 428 pp. (pl. [1], XIII, XIV, XV, XXI, XX (sic)) (89 pl. are mentioned in the text but are unpublished. Perhaps published in Icones ad Zoographiam Rosso-Asiaticam, 1834-427.). (2nd ed., 1831, 3 vol. and Atlas, Petropoli.)

Smitt, F. A. 1893-1895. (ed.) A history of Scandinavian fishes, Stockholm and Paris, Atlas, I, 1893, pl. i-xxvii. Balon, E. K. 1980. Early ontogeny of the European landlocked arctic charr alticial form. Salvelinus (Salvelinus) alpinus alpinus. In: E. Balon (ed.). Charrs, salmonid fishes of the genus Salvelinus, p. 607-630, 14 fig. Perspectives of Vertebrate Sciences, Vol. I, Junk, Amsterdam.

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