White-headed hagfish

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

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

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. "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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