Trachinus draco
| Greater weever | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Suborder: | Trachinoidei |
| Family: | Trachinidae |
| Genus: | Trachinus |
| Species: | T. draco |
| Binomial name | |
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Trachinus draco Linnaeus, 1758 |
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The greater weever (Trachinus draco, Linnaeus 1758) is a benthic and demersal venomous marine fish of the family Trachinidae. The greater weever is widely distributed along the eastern Atlantic coastline from Norway to Morocco, extending to the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas. Trachinus draco has been shown to occur in depths ranging from shallow water up to -150 meters where it inhabits mostly muddy or sandy grounds.Trachinus draco is mostly and notoriously known for its venomous spines that can inflict serious injuries on humans through accidental stinging. Because of these spines and its potent venom it is classified as one of the most venomous fishes in the Mediterranean. The name “weever” is thought to originate from the Aglo-Saxon word “wivre” which translates as “viper”.
Trachinus draco is an elongated and laterally flattened fish with upstanding eyes and a distinct superior mouth that is inclined upwards. The lower jaw is longer than the upper jaw. The head is compact flat and relatively big and the eyes sit almost on top of it. The upper rim of the eye has two to three small spines, in front of each eye. The five to seven spiny fin rays on its first dorsal fin and the thorns on each of the gill covers have venom glands at their basis.
On its dorsal side Trachinus draco is coloured in an greenish brown with a varying count of dark marks on the upper side of the head. The flank is hued in a yellowish brown with bright blue and yellow discontinuous stripes that run crooked to the front of the fish. Additionally oblique black stripes can be found laterally. This pattern is described as tiger-like by Horst Müller.
The body dimensions of Trachinus draco are described very differently by different authors and seem to differ based on the geographical location were the study has been carried out. In the Eastern Black Sea, the length distribution of mature fishes ranges from 10 cm up to a maximum of 25.8 cm for females and from 9.5 cm to 22.5 cm for males. The weight ranges from 6.96 g to 131.76 g for females and from 5.34 g to 75.84 g for males. While the largest female recorded in the Eastern Black Sea was 25.8 cm long, the findings in other studies suggest, that Trachinus draco has a much bigger range in size than that found in this study. In the Algarve Coast of Southern Portugal the largest female found by Santos et al. had a total maximum length of 39.6 cm. But also in the Black Sea specimens have been observed, that outrange the largest female found by Ak & Genç in 2013. The largest female found by Ak et al. in the Black Sea had a total maximum length of 35 cm. For Ak & Genç it seems to be clear, that a whole lot of different factors contribute to the variety in size of Trachinus draco like “temperature, salinity, food (quantity, quality and size), sex, time of year and stage of maturity”.
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Wikipedia