Atherina boyeri

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Megaclassis: Osteichthyes
Superclassis/Classis: Actinopterygii
Classis/Subclassis: Actinopteri
Subclassis/Infraclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Megacohors: Osteoglossocephalai
Supercohors: Clupeocephala
Cohors: Euteleosteomorpha
Subcohors: Neoteleostei
Infracohors: Eurypterygia
Sectio: Ctenosquamata
Subsectio: Acanthomorphata
Divisio/Superordo: Acanthopterygii
Subdivisio: Percomorphaceae
Series: Ovalentaria
Superordo: Atherinomorphae
Ordo: Atheriniformes
Subordo: Atherinoidei

Familia: Atherinidae
Subfamilia: Atherininae
Genus: Atherina
Species: Atherina boyeri
Name

Atherina boyeri Risso, 1810
Synonyms

Atherina anterina Nardo, 1847
Atherina boïeri Risso, 1810
Atherina bonapartei non Boulenger, 1907
Atherina bonapartii Boulenger, 1907
Atherina boyeri caspia Eichwald, 1831
Atherina caspia Eichwald, 1838
Atherina hyalosoma Cocco, 1885
Atherina lacustris Bonaparte, 1836
Atherina mochon Cuvier, 1829
Atherina mochon aegyptia Boulenger, 1907
Atherina mochon pontica Eichwald, 1831
Atherina mochon riqueti Roule, 1902
Atherina pontica Eichwald, 1831
Atherina presbyter caspia Eichwald, 1831
Atherina presbyter pontica Eichwald, 1831
Atherina riqueti Roule, 1902
Atherina risso Valenciennes, 1835
Atherina rissoi Günther, 1861
Atherina sarda Valenciennes, 1835
Atherina sardinella Fowler, 1903
Hepsetia boyeri (Risso, 1810)
Hepsetia mochon (Cuvier, 1829)

References

Risso, A. (1810) Ichthyologie de Nice, ou histoire naturelle des poissons du département des Alpes Maritimes. F. Schoell, Paris. Ichthyologie de Nice, ou histoire naturelle des poissons du département des Alpes Maritimes.: i-xxxvi + 1-388, Pls. 1-11.

Links

Atherina boyeri – Taxon details on Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

Vernacular names
català: Joell
Deutsch: Kleiner Ährenfisch
Ελληνικά: Αθερίνα
English: Big-scale sand smelt
euskara: Abixoi txiki
français: Joël
hrvatski: Gavun oliga
magyar: Kis kalászhal
italiano: Latterino capoccione
Nederlands: Kleine koornaarvis
polski: Ateryna Boyera
slovenščina: Mali gavun
svenska: Liten silversida
українська: Атерина піщана

The big-scale sand smelt (Atherina boyeri) is a species of fish in the family Atherinidae. It is a euryhaline amphidromous fish, up to 20 cm in length.
Description

It is a small pelagic fish species which occurs near the surface in the littoral estuarine zone: in lagoons, salt marshes (77 psu), shallow brackish areas (2 psu) and inland waters which are rather unsuitable for other fish species, due to their high ionic strength and salinity.

Body is rather long, slender, moderately flattened. Eyes are large. Head and body are scaly. Mouth is protractible, upwardly directed, with small teeth. Lower jaw has an upper expansion within mouth (high dentary bone). There are two separate dorsal fins, with all rays of first and 1-2 anterior rays of second dorsal fin being unsegmented. The anal fin is similar to the second dorsal fin, while the caudal fin is forked. The first dorsal fin has 6-10 flexible spines.[3]

It is an omnivorous species feeding on zoo-plankton and small bottom-living animals (crustacean gammarids, polychaete worms and molluscs).
Range
Atherina boyeri from the Gulf of Odesa, Black Sea, Ukraine

It is found in the eastern Atlantic from Portugal and Spain to Nouadhibou (Mauritania) and Madeira.[4] Also it occurs in the Mediterranean, including the inshore lagoons, such as Trasimeno and Lesina[5] in Italy, Hyères in the southern France such as Marseille and Lake Qarun in Egypt;[6] an isolated population is found near the coasts of England and the Netherlands. In the Black Sea, it is widespread along all coasts, in lagoons and estuaries, in the downstreams of rivers Danube, Dniester, Southern Bug, Inhulets, and Dnieper, with a permanent population is in the Kakhovka Reservoir.[7]

The isolated population in the Caspian Sea is characterised as subspecies A. b. caspia (Eichwald, 1838).
Fishing

The major small-scale fishing gears exploiting this species are coastal beach seines, small mesh size (10 mm) gill nets and lift-nets. It is often used as bait fish on small and medium longlines, handlines, fishing using rods and reels, as trolling bait, even as bait in fish traps.
Gastronomy

This small fish is appreciated in the Italian, Spanish, French, Turkish, and Greek cuisines. The fish are lightly powdered with wheat flour before being fried in hot olive oil.
Etymology

The specific name of this species honours the Medieval poet and scientist Guillaume Boyer who was a native of Nice, the type locality for this species.[8]
References

Freyhof, J.; Kottelat, M. (2008). "Atherina boyeri". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008: e.T2352A174776839. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T2352A174776839.en. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2019). "Atherina boyeri" in FishBase. February 2019 version.
Review of Croatian selected scientific literature on species mostly exploited by the national small-scale fisheries on FAOAdriaMed.org
Atherina boyeri at FishBase
Manzo, Cristina; Fabbrocini, Adele; Roselli, Leonilde; D’Adamo, Raffaele (2016). "Characterization of the fish assemblage in a Mediterranean coastal lagoon: Lesina Lagoon (central Adriatic Sea)". Regional Studies in Marine Science. 8: 192–200. doi:10.1016/j.rsma.2016.04.003.
Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Vol. 3., (Eds.:) Whitehead P.J.P., Bauchot M.-L., Hureau J.-C., Nielsen J., Tortonese E., Paris, UNESCO, 1986.
Movchan Yu.V. (1988) True loaches, catfishes, canal catfishes, freshwater eels, congers, needlefishes, cods, sticklebacks, syngnathids, mosquitofishes, zeids, barracudas, grey mullets, old world silversides, cusk eels [in:] Fauna of Ukraine, Vol. 8, No 3, Kyiv: Naukova Dumka, 399 pp. (in Russian).
Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (1 January 2019). "Order ATHERINIFORMES: Families ATHERINOPSIDAE, ATHERINIDAE and ATHERIONIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 16 July 2019.