Author(s):
Barreiros, João P. 
; Sousa, Luis ; Soares, Marta S. C.
Date: 2003
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.3/1616
Origin: Repositório da Universidade dos Açores
Subject(s): Stomach Contents; Seasonal Variation; Growth Changes; Feeding Srategy; Prey Orientation; Synodus saurus
Description
Copyright © 2003 aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology. The feeding habits of the lizardfish Synodus saurus were study in the Azores archipelago, north-eastern Atlantic. Factors examined were diet composition, prey importance, season, fish size, feeding strategy and prey orientation in the oesophagus. The stomach contents of 308 specimens were collected and analyzed between March and November 2000. Synodus saurus is common in Azorean water. Though it prefers small gregarious pelagic fish, it also feeds on epibenthic and benthic prey. We found the following prey in its diet: 9 families of teleostean fishes (Carangidae, clupeidae, Cynoglossidae, Gobiidae, Labridae, Myctophidae, Spaidae, Spyraenidae and Synodontidae), two families of crustaceans (Cymothoidae and Scyllaridae) and one of cephalopods (Loliginidae). The European pilchard, Sardina pilchardus was the commonest prey. The diet of the lizardfish varies with the season, showing the greatest diversity (given by the Shannon-Wiener index) in October. There is a significant correlation with the sea temperature. The size of the predator is not correlated to the size of its prey. However, we observed a positive correlation between the size o the positive correlation between the size of the predator and the quantity of food in its stomach. The orientation of the prey in the oesophagus may partly depend on the predator’s size. However, analysis of the stomach contents provided no information on the selection of prey.
