Author: (Corbin, 1950)

Hyperoplus immaculatlus (Corbin, 1950)

Diagnosis: vomerine teeth appearing as two, almost separate, low cusps. Dorsal rays 59-62; anal rays 31-34; pectoral fins 35- 40% of head length and extended beyond the level of first dorsal finray. Vertebrae 70-74. Colour: back dark grey/brown; no dark spot on either side of snout; tip of lower jaw distinctly dark. Size: to 35 cm SL.

Habitat: inshore and offshore, although only juveniles appear to occur close inshore. Commonly associated with Ammodytes species, but probably less gregarious. Food: initially zooplankton, but for lengths greater than 10-15 cm small fish, such as clupeids and ammodytids dominate the diet. Reproduction: winter spawner, planktonic stages present January-April (North Sea).

Distribution: eastern North Atlantic, all coasts of the British Isles, North Sea, and English Channel to northern Biscay.

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Corbin & Vati, 1949: 299, pl. 11 (fig. 2) | Macer, 1967:5, fig.3a-d.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.

Note. This is the most local, least studied and most recently recognized sand-eel species.

Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Vertebrata
Superclass Gnathostomata
Class Osteichthyes
Order Perciformes
Suborder Percoidei
Family Ammodytidae
Genus Hyperoplus
Species Hyperoplus immaculatus

Status in World Register of Marine Species

Accepted name: Hyperoplus immaculatus (Corbin, 1950)

Scientific synonyms and common names

Hyperoplus immaculatlus (Corbin, 1950)

Synonyms:

Ammodytes immaculatus Corbin, 1950, Nature, Lond., 166: 525-526 (Plymouth area) (types not designated).
Ammodytes sp. IV: Corbin & Vati, 1949: 299, pl. 11 (fig. 2).
Ammodytes immaculatus: Macer, 1966: 24, 31 Molloy, 1966: 232 Fives, 1967: 42.
Ammodytes (Hyperoplus) immaculatus: Wheeler, 1968: 64.
Hyperoplus immaculatus: Wheeler, 1969: 319, fig.


Common names:

corbin's sand-eel [En]
greater sand-eel [En]
grosser Sandaal [De]
lançon [Fr]
lanzon [Es]
launce [En]
storsil [No]
tobiskonge [Da]

Corbin, P. G. 1950. The occurrence of the smooth sand-eel, Gymnammodytes semisquamatus (Jourdain), in the Plymouth area, with notes on C. cicerelus (Rafinesque), and G. capensis (Barnard). J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K, 29: pp. 83-89.

Corbin, P. G.; Vati, V. 1949. The post-larval sand-eels (Ammodytidae) of the Celtic Sea and Plymouth area. J. mar. biol. Ass. U.K, 28: pp. 287-312.

Fives, J. M. 1967. Sand-eels (Ammodytides) and their larvae off the Galway Coast. Scient. Proc. R. Dubl. Soc., (B) 2 (4): 37-44.

Macer, C. T. 1966. Sand eels (Ammodytidae) in the south-western North Sea; their biology and fishery. Fish. Invest., Lond., (2) 24 (6) :1-55.

Macer, C. T. 1967. Ammodytidae. ICES, Fiches d'identification des Ïufs et larves de poissons. No. 2.

Molloy, J. 1966. Sand eels of the Irish Sea. Ir. Nat. J., 15 (8): 232-233.

Wheeler, A. 1968. Notes on some Irish Fishes. Ir. Nat. J., 16 (3): pp. 62-66.

Wheeler, A. 1969. The Fishes of the British Isles and North-West Europe. Macmillan, London, Melbourne and Toronto: pp. i-xvii+1-163, 5+177 fig., 392 fig. (princ. sp.), 92 n. num. fig., 16 pl., maps.

You can continue searching for Hyperoplus immaculatus on one of these Web sites:

Fauna Europaea (animals) | IOPI (plants) | NCBI (genetic)

Google | Yahoo | MSN | Wikipedia