Fish of the Trichiurus genus of the Trichiurinae subfamily of the Trichiuridae (cutlassfishes) family of the Scombroidei suborder of the Scombriformes order of the Percomorpha clade of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Largehead hairtail. Photo by © Hamid Badar Osmany. fishbase.org)
Largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) was first described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778).
It is a pelagic schooling species. It inhabits the depths of up to 590 meters, usually 100-350 meters. It dwells near a sandy and silty bottom. The maximum recorded length is 234 cm, specimens up to 100 cm long are more common. The maximum weight is 5 kilograms. It feeds on crustaceans, squids, and fish. Adult fish rise closer to the surface and feed during the day, young fish, on the contrary, at night.
(Largehead hairtail. Photo © armacao.exblog.jp)
It is a permanent rare inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea. It is more common in the central and southern parts of the Adriatic.
Names of largehead hairtail (Trichiurus lepturus) in other languages as follows:
Peshku shirit (Albanian), Haarstaartdegenvis (Dutch), Λεπτουροσπαθόψαρο (Lepturospafopsaro) (Greek), Pez sable (Spanish), Pesce coltello (Italian), Degenfisch (German), Pałasz (Polish), Peixe-espada (Portuguese), Обыкновенная рыба–сабля (Obyknovennaja ryba-sablja) (Russian), Zmijičnjak sabljaš (Serbian, Croatian), Poisson-sabre commun (French), Tkaničnice atlantská (Czech).