Fish of the Mycteroperca genus of the Epinephelinae (groupers) subfamily of the Serranidae family of the superfamily Percoidea of the Percoidei suborder of the Perciformes order of the Acanthopterygii superorder.
(Mottled grouper. Photo by © Roberto Pillon. marinespecies.org)
Mottled grouper (Mycteroperca rubra) was first described in 1793 by the German naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723 – 1799).
It inhabits the depth of 15-200 meters, usually up to 50 meters. It prefers to swim close to a rocky and sandy bottom. The maximum recorded length is 144 cm, specimens up to 80 cm long are more common. The maximum weight is about 50 kilograms. It feeds mainly on cephalopods and fish.
(Mottled grouper. Photo by © Luis Sánchez Tocino. litoraldegranada.ugr.es)
It is a permanent rare inhabitant of the Adriatic Sea, extremely rare in its northern part.
Names of mottled grouper (Mycteroperca rubra) in other languages as follows:
Πίγκα (Pinga) (Greek), Miktorit (Hebrew), Gitano (Spanish), Cernia rossa (Italian), Perka rdzawa (Polish), Garoupa-chumbo (Portuguese), Красный групер (Krasnyj gruper) (Russian), Češljasta kеrnja, Češljasta kirnja (Serbian, Croatian), Badèche rouge (French).