Lesser spotted dogfish

📖 Overview

Most common catshark in coastal waters of Europe . Inhabits continental shelves and uppermost slopes. Found on sandy, coralline, algal, gravel or muddy bottoms. Occurs mainly between 10-100 m depth in the northeast Atlantic and up to 400 m depth in the Mediterranean Sea and from 288-780 m in the eastern Ionian Sea . They sometimes occur in midwater. Nocturnal species, males resting on substrate and females hiding in shallow (0.5-1.5 m depth) caves and crevices during the day . Feed on a variety of benthic invertebrates, including mollusks, crustaceans, small cephalopods, polychaete worms, and small bony fishes . Males have been found to forage in shallow prey-rich areas with soft sediment or areas covered with filamentous algae . Oviparous, with a single egg laid per oviduct at a time. Detect weak electric fields generated by other organisms (e.g. potential prey) . Utilized fresh and dried-salted for human consumption, also for oil and fishmeal.

🔬 Taxonomy

🐟 Physical Description

This species is distinguished from all its congeners by the following characters: shallow nasoral grooves and laterally situated posterior nasal flaps (vs. no grooves and posterior flaps on the posterior border of the excurrent apertures in congeners, except in S. duhamelii); distance between the anterior nasal flaps 6-7.5 times smaller than the anterior nasal flap width (vs. 3.5-5 times smaller in S. duhamelii; two times in the other species); lower labial furrow 2.1-2.2 times smaller than mouth width (vs. more than 3 times in other species, except S. duhamelii). Colouration: color pattern with dark spots well-defined, predominantly smaller than spiracles (vs. no dark spots in S. capensis, S. comoroensis, S. hesperius, S. meadi, S. torazame, S. torrei; reticulated pattern in S. rotifer; dark spots predominantly larger than spiracles in S. cervigoni, S. garmani, S. haeckelii, S. stellaris; diffuse spots in S. duhamelii); clasper with rough terminal dermal cover (also found only in S. capensis) . Cross section: oval.

🌀 Behaviour

Behavioural data for Lesser spotted dogfish is currently being reviewed.

🦐 Diet

Diet information for Lesser spotted dogfish is currently being compiled.

🥚 Reproduction

Oviparous, laying paired eggs (one per oviduct) in shallow subtidal areas, although some egg cases have been found in the deeper part of intertidal zones . Embryos feed solely on yolk . The egg cases are anchored to macroalgae, sea grass or sessile erect invertebrates such as poriferans, bryozoans and hydroids . The capsules have tendrils at each corner used for anchorage purposes. Egg capsule size varies according to locality and female size and ranges between 4.9-7.0 cm length and 1.5-3.0 cm width . Egg cases may be deposited throughout the year, peaking in June and July . Recent studies estimate fecundity of females from the northeast Atlantic to be at around 29-62 pups . Fully formed pups hatch after 5-11 months, depending on water temperature . Newly hatched pups are about 8-10 cm in length .

🌍 Habitat & Distribution

Marine; demersal; depth range 10 - 780 m , usually 80 - 100 m . Subtropical; 63°N - 3°N, 32°W - 37°E north of Mauritania (20º30’N); including Norwegian Sea.

🌿 Ecology

📐 Morphometrics

🌡️ Water Parameters & Tolerance

🛡️ Conservation Assessment

📊 Population Risk & Fisheries

🌐 Names & Taxonomy

🐠 Related Species

🔍 Similar Species

🗺️ Global Occurrence Map

Occurrence records from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) — 497 records indexed .

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