''Capros'', the boarfish or Zulu fish, is a

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Caproidae Caproidae, or boarfishes, are a small family of marine fishes comprising two genera and 19 species. These fishes are found throughout the world in temperate and tropical seas. Taxonomy Caproidae was first proposed as a family in 1835 by the F ...

. Its only known species is ''Capros aper''. The boarfish is found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.

Taxonomy

''Capros aper'' was first formally described as ''Zeus aper'' by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in the 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' published in 1758. Linnaeus gave the type localities as

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

and

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

in Italy. In 1802

Bernard Germain de Lacépède Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French natural history, naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the Comte de Buffon's g ...

classified ''Zeus aper'' into the monotypic genus ''Capros''. Some authorities treat ''Capros'' as the only genus in the family Caproidae. However, the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

'' includes '' Antigonia'' in the Caproidae, albeit placing this taxon in the monotypic subfamily Caproinae and ''Antigonia'' in the similarly monotypic subfamily Antigoniinae. The Caproidae is the only family in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Caproiformes Caproidae, or boarfishes, are a small family of marine fishes comprising two genera and 19 species. These fishes are found throughout the world in temperate and tropical seas. Taxonomy Caproidae was first proposed as a family in 1835 by the F ...

Etymology

''Capros'' is a latinisation of ''kapros'', the Greek for "boar". The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''aper'' is

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "wild boar". Both are allusions to the cylindrical snout, ending in a small mouth with a protrusible upper lip, resembling a pig.

Description

''Capros'' has an oval, compressed and deep body with the depth of the body being greater than the length of the head. The depth of the body fits into the

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

between 1.7 and 1.9 times. The dorsal profile of the head is concave with a conical snout. The large eyes which are approximately equal in diameter to the length of the snout. The large mouth is very protrusible, protruding out as a short tube. There are a pair of spiny plates near the

symphysis A symphysis (, : symphyses) is a fibrocartilaginous fusion between two bones. It is a type of cartilaginous joint, specifically a secondary cartilaginous joint. # A symphysis is an amphiarthrosis, a slightly movable joint. # A growing together o ...

if the jaws. Each jaw has 4 or 5 rows of narrow with a patch of very small

vomerine teeth The vomer (; ) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxillary bones. The vomer forms t ...

arranged in a cloverleaf shape and there are a small number of similar teeth on the

palatine A palatine or palatinus (Latin; : ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman Empire, Roman times.

. The bones of the head have rough surfaces and spines. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

is deeply incised, the incision separating the 9 or 10 robust, grooved spines from the 23 to 25 branched soft rays. The

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

is supported by 3, short, thick spines and between 22 and 24 soft rays. The

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

s are short and rounded having a length that is half of the length of the head and contains 15 fin rays. The pelvic fin has a single robust spine and f thick soft rays and the fin does not reach much beyond the second spine in the anal fin. The spines and rays in the paired fins have lots of spinelets on them. The boarfish is covered in small scales that feel rough when touched. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

has 20 tubed scales and terminates underneath the rearmost spine of the dorsal fin. The overall colour of the head and body is silver-gold with the spiny parts of the dorsal fin being black with a wide red upper margin, the rest of the dorsal fin, the anal fin and the caudal fin are black with dusky yellow margins. The pelvic fins are red. Fishes found in deeper water, deeper than are a red in colour, which may be broken up by yellow bars. The boarfish has a maximum published

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of , although is more typical.

Distribution and habitat

''Capros'' is widespread in the Eastern Atlantic, from western

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Skagerrak The Skagerrak (; , , ) is a strait running between the North Jutlandic Island of Denmark, the east coast of Norway and the west coast of Sweden, connecting the North Sea and the Kattegat sea. The Skagerrak contains some of the busiest shipping ...

Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...

, and western

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Senegal Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...

. It is also present in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea ( ) is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

, especially in the western part. It is found at depths between , although its depth range in the eastern

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

is . The boarfish is found over coral, rocks and sand, being most common along the edge of the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

and areas of high productivity.

Biology

''Capros'' is a carnivorous genus which feeds mainly on small crustaceans and polychaetes as well as molluscs and

hydrozoans Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ('; "water") and ('; "animals")) is a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial spe ...

. The boarfish is a R-strategist, they produce a large number of pelagic eggs which hatch into very small larvae and provide no parental care. They are also, however, long lived and are slow to reach sexual maturity. Spawning takes place between April and August in the Aegean, elsewhere in the Mediterranean it has been recorded from March to August and in the northeastern Atlantic between April and September. In the Aegean both sexes reach sexual maturity at a total length of but the females appear to mature earlier than the males, in the Mediterranean maturity was found to be reached at 2 years old and and 4.6 years old while in the Atlantic the total length at maturity is and 3.4 years old. It is a gregarious species which aggregates in

schools A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

. Despite their well armoured bodies boarfishes are known to be taken by a number of fishes, including tope (''Galeorhinus galeus''), thornback ray (''Raja clavata''),

conger eel ''Conger'' ( ) is a genus of marine congrid eels. It includes some of the largest types of eels, ranging up to or more in length, in the case of the European conger. Large congers have often been observed by divers during the day in parts of ...

(''Conger conger''),

bigeye tuna The bigeye tuna (''Thunnus obesus'') is a species of true tuna of the genus ''Thunnus'', belonging to the wider mackerel family (biology), family Scombridae. In Hawaiian language, Hawaiian, it is one of two species known as ahi, the other being t ...

(''Thunnus obesus''), and blackspot seabream (''Pagellus bogaraveo''), as well as birds such as

Cory's shearwater Cory's shearwater (''Calonectris borealis'') is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It breeds colonially on the archipelago of the Azores in the eastern Atlantic. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely in the Atlantic. ...

(''Calonectris diomedea''),

common tern The common tern (''Sterna hirundo'') is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in Temperateness, temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is stron ...

(''Sterna hirundo'') and the

yellow-legged gull The yellow-legged gull (''Larus michahellis'') is a large gull found in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, which has only recently achieved wide recognition as a distinct species. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of either the Cas ...

(''Larus cachinnans'').

Fisheries

''Capros'' has increased in frequency in fishing catches in the northeastern Atlantic in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. The numbers caught in the

Bay of Biscay The Bay of Biscay ( ) is a gulf of the northeast Atlantic Ocean located south of the Celtic Sea. It lies along the western coast of France from Point Penmarc'h to the Spanish border, and along the northern coast of Spain, extending westward ...

increased between the early 1970s and 2000 from 7 fishes per haul to 1500 per haul, the increase is at least partially caused by increasing water temperatures. Most of the catch is processed into

fish meal Fish meal (sometimes spelled fishmeal) is a commercial product made from whole wild-caught fish, bycatch, and fish by-products to feed farm animals, such as pigs, poultry, and farmed fish.R. D. Miles and F. A. Chapman.FA122: The Benefits of Fish ...

. This genus has life history characteristics, e.g. longevity and late maturity, that make it more vulnerable to overfishing than other small pelagic, schooling fish such as

Atlantic herring Atlantic herring (''Clupea harengus'') is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. ...

(''Clupea harengus'') and

European pilchard The European pilchard (''Sardina pilchardus'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the monotypic genus ''Sardina''. The young of the species are among the many fish that are sometimes called sardines. This common species is found in the northeast ...

(''Sardina pilchardus'').

References

* Costa F. ''Atlante dei pesci dei mari italiani'' Mursia 1991 * Louisy P., Trainito E. ''Guida all'identificazione dei pesci marini d'Europa e del Mediterraneo.'' Milano, Il Castello, 2006.

External links

Taxonomicon

Marine species identification

{{Taxonbar, from2=Q1278796, from3=Q117204843, from1=Q5036326 Caproidae Fish described in 1758 Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of Europe Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Monotypic ray-finned fish genera Monotypic marine fish genera