White-headed hagfish
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Infraphylum: Agnatha
Class: Myxini
Order: Myxiniformes
Family: Myxinidae
Genus: Myxine
Species:
M. ios
Binomial name
Myxine ios
Fernholm, 1981

The white-headed hagfish (Myxine ios) is a species of jawless fish of the family Myxinidae (hagfish).[2][3][4]

Its scientific name alludes to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS), Wormley, Surrey, which supplied the holotype.[5]

Distribution

Myxine ios is a marine bathydemersal fish,[6] living at depths of 614–1,625 m (2,014–5,331 ft). It is non-migratory, living in the North Atlantic waters off Iceland, Ireland and the western Sahara.[7][8]

Description

The white-headed hagfish may grow up to 57 centimetres (1.87 ft) long.[5] It is a seven-gilled hagfish; it can be distinguished from related species by its large number of tooth cusps: between 44 and 51.[9] The Irish M. ios population is distinguished from the southern variety by its white head and whitish middorsal or midventral line.[10]

Behaviour

M. ios is a scavenger of dead or disabled fish, which it bores into. Its eggs are large, 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18 in).[11]

References

  1. ↑ "IUCN Red List of Threatened Species".
  2. ↑ "WoRMS - World Register of Marine Species - Myxine ios Fernholm, 1981". www.marinespecies.org.
  3. ↑ Watkins, Michael; Beolens, Bo (January 30, 2015). Sharks: An Eponym Dictionary. Pelagic Publishing Ltd. ISBN 9781784270377 – via Google Books.
  4. ↑ Check-list of the Fishes of the Eastern Tropical Atlantic: Clofeta. Junta Nacional de Investigação Cientifica e Tecnológica. June 19, 1990. ISBN 9789230026202 – via Google Books.
  5. 1 2 "Myxine ios, White-headed hagfish". www.fishbase.se.
  6. ↑ Ramos, Ana; Ramil, Fran; Sanz, José Luis (September 25, 2017). Deep-Sea Ecosystems Off Mauritania: Research of Marine Biodiversity and Habitats in the Northwest African Margin. Springer. ISBN 9789402410235 – via Google Books.
  7. ↑ Heessen, Henk J. L.; Daan, Niels; Ellis, Jim R. (September 1, 2015). Fish atlas of the Celtic Sea, North Sea, and Baltic Sea: Based on international research-vessel surveys. Wageningen Academic Publishers. ISBN 9789086868780 – via Google Books.
  8. ↑ Priede, I. G. (August 10, 2017). Deep-Sea Fishes: Biology, Diversity, Ecology and Fisheries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107083820 – via Google Books.
  9. ↑ Berkovitz, Barry K. B.; Shellis, R. Peter (October 14, 2016). The Teeth of Non-Mammalian Vertebrates. Academic Press. ISBN 9780128028841 – via Google Books.
  10. ↑ Fernholm, B. (July 19, 1981). "A new species of hagfish of the genus Myxine, with notes on other eastern Atlantic myxinids". Journal of Fish Biology. 19 (1): 73–82. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8649.1981.tb05812.x.
  11. ↑ "Myxine ios | NBN Atlas". species.nbnatlas.org.
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