576 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Mallotus villosus (Miiller) 1777, subspecies villosus 



Capelin 



Figures 133-136 



Study Material. Over 100 specimens, 1 15-165 mm SL, from Newfoundland (in- 

 cluding Labrador), St. Pierre and Miquelon, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Grand Manan, 

 New Brunswick, and northern Norway, MCZ; also many handled both alive and 

 freshly caught on the Atlantic coast of Labrador many years ago. 





■■^-^■.~^. 



Figure 133. Mallotus villosus villosus, sexually mature male, from comparison with specimens i 50-160 mm SL, 

 from St. Pierre and Miquelon, south of Newfoundland. After Cuvier and \'alenciennes as emended by Jessie 

 H. Sawyer. 



Distinctive Characters. The only fishes of the North Atlantic with which the adult 

 of this species is at all likely to be confused are Osmerus eperlanus (American smelt, 

 p. 559), Argentina (argentine. Part 4), or, in the southernmost part of the capelin's range, 

 the silverside {Menidia). It takes little more than a glance to separate it from all of these, 

 for its scales are very much smaller than those of O. eperlanus and its adipose fin is of 

 a different shape (cf. Figs. 131, 134); its mouth is much larger but its scales much 

 smaller than in Argentina; and it is only in its slender form and silvery color that it 

 resembles the silverside, which has a much smaller mouth and a rayed (not adipose) 

 second dorsal fin. For differences between the larvae of M. v. villosus and those of other 

 fishes with which they are likely to be taken, see p. 581. 



Description. Based on five males, 129— 160 mm, and five females, 129—153 mm SL, 

 from Newfoundland (including Labrador), St. Pierre and Miquelon, and Grand Manan. 



Body elongated, moderately compressed, its depth 5.8—6.2 in SL, its greatest thick- 

 ness about 1.2 — 1.7 times distance from snout to eye; the dorsal and ventral profiles of 

 head and trunk slightly convex, but males with contour more abruptly rounded along 

 base of anal fin. Least depth of Caudal peduncle in males 15.2 — 16.7 times in SL, in 

 females 19.0-2 1.8 times, thus noticeably deeper in males. Scales present everywhere 

 on trunk as well as on base of caudal, but not on dorsal or anal; 177—205 (170—220 

 reported); 32—37 in oblique series from origin of pelvics to midline of back — 16—20 



