The white-headed hagfish (''Myxine ios'') 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), ...

jawless fish Agnatha (; ) or jawless fish is a paraphyletic infraphylum of animals in the subphylum Vertebrata of the phylum Chordata, characterized by the lack of jaws. The group consists of both extant taxon, living (Cyclostomi, cyclostomes such as hagfish ...

of the family Myxinidae (hagfish). Its scientific name alludes to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences (IOS),

Wormley, Surrey Wormley is a village in the civil parish of Witley and Milford, in the Waverley district, in Surrey, England, around Witley station, off the A283 Petworth Road about SSW of Godalming. History Expansion from archetypal hamlet Wormley develo ...

, which supplied the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

Distribution

''Myxine ios'' is a marine

bathydemersal Demersal fish, also known as groundfish, live and feed on or near the bottom of ocean, seas or lakes (the demersal zone).Walrond Carl . "Coastal fish - Fish of the open sea floor"Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Updated 2 March 2009 T ...

fish, living at depths of . It is non-migratory, living in the

North Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for ...

waters off

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and the western Sahara.

Description

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

Behaviour

''M. ios'' is a

scavenger Scavengers are animals that consume Corpse decomposition, dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a he ...

of dead or disabled fish, which it bores into. Its eggs are large, .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4732911 Myxinidae Fish of the North Atlantic Fish described in 1981 Taxa named by Bo Fernholm