Scorpaena scrofa
{{Short description|Species of fish}}
{{Speciesbox
| image = Scorpaena scrofa 02.JPG
| status = LC
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| taxon = Scorpaena scrofa
| authority = Linnaeus, 1758{{WRMS species|127248|Scorpaena scrofa Linnaeus, 1758|15 January 2019}}
| synonyms = * Scorpaena lutea Risso, 1810
- Scorpaena natalensis Regan, 1906
- Scorpaenopsis natalensis (Regan, 1906)
| synonyms_ref = {{FishBase|Scorpaena|scrofa|month=August|year=2021}}
}}
Scorpaena scrofa, the red scorpionfish, bigscale scorpionfish, large-scaled scorpion fish,{{cite web|url=http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=fnam&id=2130 |title=Marine Species Identification Portal : Large-scaled scorpion fish - Scorpaena scrofa |publisher=Species-identification.org |date= |accessdate=September 15, 2011}} or rascasse is a venomous marine species of ray-finned fish in the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes. It is found in the Mediterranean Sea, in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the western Indian Ocean.
Taxonomy
Scorpaena scrofa was first formally described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae in which he gave the type localities as the Mediterranean Sea at Rome and Marseille.{{Cof genus | genus = Scorpaena | access-date = 14 February 2022}} The specific name scrofa means "a breeding sow" in Latin, presumed to derive from scrofano and scrofanello, which are Italian names for the black scorpionfish (S. porcus) and this species, similar to the Old English "hogfish", possible an allusion to Renaissance mistranslations of Athenaeus' observation that scorpionfishes fed on algae or weed, that led to the belief that these fishes live and feed on mud.{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/perciformes9/ | title = Order Perciformes (Part 9): Suborder Scorpaenoidei: Family Scorpaenidae | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1= Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp |date = 2 October 2021 | access-date = 14 February 2022 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}
Description
Scorpaena scrofa is the largest eastern Atlantic scorpion fish.{{cite web|url=http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/scorpaena_scrofa.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011126105250/http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/scorpaena_scrofa.htm |url-status=usurped |archive-date=November 26, 2001 |title=Scorpaena scrofa |publisher=Malawicichlidhomepage.com |date= |accessdate=September 15, 2011}} Its colouration ranges from brick red to a light pink, and it has dark-coloured blotches on its body. It has venomous spines, and can achieve a maximum weight around {{convert|3|kg|abbr=on}}. It can grow to a maximum length of {{convert|50|cm|abbr=on}}, but is commonly around {{convert|30|cm|abbr=on}}.
It has 12 dorsal spines, 9 dorsal soft rays, three anal spines, and five soft rays. It often has a dark spot on its spinous dorsal spines between the 6th and 11th.{{cite web|author=Greece |url=http://wildlife-archipelago.gr/wordpress/fish/red-scorpionfish-scorpaena-scrofa/ |title=Red Scorpionfish (Scorpaena scrofa) | Archipelago Wildlife Library |publisher=Wildlife-archipelago.gr |date= |accessdate=September 15, 2011}} It has long supraorbital tentacles.
Distribution
Scorpaena scrofa is found in the Mediterranean Sea. It is also found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean around the British Isles, where it is rare, south to Senegal, the Canary Islands, and Cape Verde.It is also found in the Azores Island of São Miguel; It is also found from Namibia south and east along the coast of South Africa into the western Indian Ocean, its otherwise circum-African distribution is interrupted between Guinea and Namibia where it is apparently replaced by the spotted-fin scorpionfish (S. stephanica). In the Indian Ocean the northern most record is from the Gulf of Aqaba and, given its occurrence elsewhere in the western Indian Ocean, it is thought that this record is unlikely to be the result of anti-Lessepsian migration from the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal.{{cite journal | author1 = Fricke, Ronald | author2 = Golani, Daniel | author3 = Appelbaum-Golani, Brenda | author4 = Zajonz, Uwe | name-list-style = and | year = 2020 | title = New record of the Red scorpionfish, Scorpaena scrofa (Actinopterygii: Scorpaeniformes: Scorpaenidae) from deep waters off Israel, Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea | journal = Acta Ichthyologica et Piscatoria | volume = 50 | issue = 3 | pages = 357–362 | doi = 10.3750/AIEP/02861| s2cid = 225333388 | doi-access = free }}
Habitat
Scorpaena scrofa is demersal and lives in marine and brackish environments with rocky, sandy, or muddy bottoms at depths of {{convert|20|-|500|m|abbr=on}}. By day, it lives in burrows and caves. At night it comes out to hunt.
Behaviour
Scorpaena scrofa is a sedentary, solitary, and nonmigratory fish. It is predatory, feeding on other fish, as well as crustaceans and molluscs. This is one of the fish used by the marine leech Pontobdella muricata as a host.{{cite web |url=https://www.sealifebase.ca/summary/Pontobdella-muricata.html |title=Pontobdella muricata Linnaeus, 1758 |publisher=SeaLifeBase |accessdate=27 December 2019}}
As food
Scorpaena scrofa is a traditional ingredient in Marseille bouillabaisse and in Tuscan cacciucco. It is also widely used in Japanese cuisine.{{cn|date=February 2022}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{SealifePhotos|127248}}
- [http://species-identification.org/species.php?species_group=fnam&id=2130 Drawing showing side view]
- [http://www.eol.org/pages/209586/overview Image]
- [http://www.mnhn.fr/sfi/cybium/numeros/314/14.Dulcic%20445.pdf Embryonic and larval development of largescaled scorpionfish Scorpaena scrofa (Scorpaenidae)]
{{Taxonbar|from=Q850274}}
Category:Fish of the Mediterranean Sea
Category:Fauna of the Canary Islands