Serranus atricauda Günther, 1874

– Blacktail comber

Serranus cabrilla (part): Günther, 1859: 282 (T).

Serranus atricauda: Günther, 1874: 230 (T); Steindachner, 1891: 351 (GC, L, F); Cadenat, 1935: 390-391 (C); Santaella et al., 1975: 355 (T, GC, LP); Brito, 1991: 104 (C); Dooley et al., 1985: 15 (GC, C); Pizarro, 1985: 82 (F); González-Jiménez et al., 1994: 83 (C); Franquet and Brito, 1995: 67 (C); Brito et al., 2002: 217, 234 (C); González et al., 2012: 138-139 (C); Báez et al., 2019: suppl. tab. (C); Freitas et al., 2019: suppl. tab. S3 (C).

Paracentropristis atricauda: Fowler, 1936: 769-770 (L, GC, T).

An eastern Atlantic warm-temperate species; distributed from France (Béarez et al., 2017) to Morocco (Cadenat, 1935; Collignon, 1973 – rare) and southwards to Guinea-Bissau, including the Azores, Madeira, Selvagens, Canary and Cabo Verde Islands; also known from the Mediterranean (Morocco and Algeria) (Heemstra and Anderson, 2016; Freitas et al., 2019; Froese and Pauly, 2020).

It is a very common species native to the Canary Islands; spread throughout the archipelago from 3 to 328 m depth, mainly to about 150 m (Brito et al., 2002). Reported maximum size: to 50 cm TL and 1.3 kg (González et al., 2012), but up to 35 cm in Heemstra and Anderson (2016); common to 35 cm TL. Spanish vernacular names: cabrilla negra; cabrilla de tierra; cabrilla ruana; cabrilla rubia. In the region, it is an important fishery resource exploited all year round by domestic small-scale fisheries with hook-and-line, traps and trammel nets (González et al., 2020). A decreasing trend in their mean sizes and landings was observed by the authors over the 2014-2019 period, with 27.7 t in 2014 and 15.9 t in 2019. This resource is also subject to intense recreational fishing activity.