The lane snapper (''Lutjanus synagris''), the Mexican snapper, redtail snapper or spot snapper, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

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 ...

, a snapper 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 ...

Lutjanidae Lutjanidae or snappers are a family of perciform fishes, mainly marine but with some members inhabiting estuaries and, in some cases, fresh water (e.g., '' Lutjanus goldiei''). The family includes about 113 species. Most species are used for foo ...

. It is native to the western

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Taxonomy

The lane snapper was first formally described in 1758 as ''Sparus synagris'' by

Carolus 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 the ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

'' with the type locality given as ''America septentrionali,'' i.e. the Bahamas. 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 ...

''synagris'' is an

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

name for the common dentex (''Dentex dentex'') which the lane snapper was thought to be similar to.

Description

The lane snapper has an oblong, compressed body. It has a sharply pointed snout, With a pair of front and a pair of rear nostrils which are simple holes, it has a relatively large mouth with a moderately protrusible upper jaw which has most of its length below the cheek bone when the mouth is shut., Each jaw has one or more rows of sharp, conical teeth with a few of these being enlarged to form canines. The vomerine teeth are arranged in an anchor shaped patch of teeth with a short rearwards extension along the middle of the palate and there is a pair of tooth patches ar either side of the palate. The preopercle is serrated, and has a weakly developed incision and knob. It has a continuous

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 ...

which has 10 spines and 12-13 soft rays, with a slight incision sometimes visible between the spines and soft rays, the anal fin has 3 spines and 8-9 soft rays. It has relatively short

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 which do not extend as far as the

anus In mammals, invertebrates and most fish, the anus (: anuses or ani; from Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is the external body orifice at the ''exit'' end of the digestive tract (bowel), i.e. the opposite end from the mouth. Its function is to facil ...

and contain 15-16 fin rays. The

caudal 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 only ...

is emarginate. This fish attains a maximum

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, and the maximum published weight is . This species has two

colour phase In biology, polymorphism is the occurrence of two or more clearly different morphs or forms, also referred to as alternative '' phenotypes'', in the population of a species. To be classified as such, morphs must occupy the same habitat at the ...

s, a deep-water phase which is darker and more distinctive than the colour of the shallow-water resting phase. In both phases the upper flanks and the back are pink to red with a green tint on the back. The lower flanks and abdomen are silver with a yellow hue. There are 3-4 yellow stripes on the head which extend from the snout to the eye, The flanks are marked with 8-10 yellow to pink longitudinal stripes, with a further 3-4 underneath the front dorsal fin ray. They have an indistinct black spot underneath the soft rayed part of the dorsal fin. The fins are may be yellow to red.

Distribution and habitat

The lane snapper is found in the Western Atlantic Ocean where it occurs as far north as

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

south through the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

, along the coast of South America as far south as Santa Catarina, Brazil. It occurs over reefs and sandy bottoms with algae or sea grass at depths between . The juveniles live in sheltered inshore waters.

Biology

Lane snapper are sedentary, staying in a home range, after they have become adult except when

spawning Spawn is the Egg cell, eggs and Spermatozoa, sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of freely releasing eggs and sperm into a body of water (fresh or marine); the physical act is ...

Feeding

Lane snappers are opportunistic, nocturnal predators feeding on a diverse range of animals. Known prey includes smaller fishes,

cephalopods A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan Taxonomic rank, class Cephalopoda (Greek language, Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral symm ...

gastropods Gastropods (), commonly known as slugs and snails, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, freshwater, and from the land. Ther ...

, and crustaceans such as

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

s and

crabs Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the thorax. Their exoskeleton is often thickened and ha ...

Reproduction

Lane snapper form spawning aggregations, off Cuba these aggregations are found from March until September, peaking in activity in July and August. Off Puerto Rico spawning reaches its zenith in May. They are broadcast spawners, the fertilised eggs drift on the currents and hatch after 23 hours. The larvae are little known but settle at a length of about .

Predators

The lane snapper is preyed upon by larger fishes and sharks.

Fisheries and conservation

The lane snapper is prized for its tasty, white meat, which is sold in supermarkets throughout Mexico. Lane snapper are more typically caught in shallower waters than many other snappers, most commonly yellowtail snapper and gray snapper. Larger specimens can be found in somewhat deeper waters, but are typically less plentiful. The consumption of its flesh has been known to result in cases of ciguatera poisoning. Lane snapper are caught with beach seines, boat seines, traps, handlines, and bottom trawls. Shrimp fisheries take for a large portion of the total catch of this snapper, due to the juveniles preference for soft bottom s with high populations of shrimps. The lane snapper stocks have shown steep declines as a result of

overfishing Overfishing is the removal of a species of fish (i.e. fishing) from a body of water at a rate greater than that the species can replenish its population naturally (i.e. the overexploitation of the fishery's existing Fish stocks, fish stock), resu ...

in much of its range. For this reason the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

have assessed this species as

Near Threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control lane snapper Fish of the Caribbean lane snapper Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus