Common names
Cazón de leche, Cazón hilacho, Cazón pardo, Musola parda, Emissole brune, Brown smooth hound, Brown smooth-hound, Brown smoothhound

Short Description
Diagnosis after Compagno, 1984 [517]: Body fairly slender. Head short, prepectoral length 19 to 22% of total length; snout moderately long and bluntly to sharply angular in lateral view, preoral snout 6.4 to 8% of total length, preorbital snout 6.6 to 8.4% of total length; internarial space broad, 2.6 to 3.4% of total length; eyes large, eye length 1.9 to 2.9 times in preorbital snout and 2.6 to 3.7% of total length; interorbital space fairly narrow, 3.9 to 5.3% of total length; mouth moderately long, subequal to eye length and 2.7 to 3.8% of total length; upper labial furrows longer than lowers, upper furrows 1.6 to 2.4% of total length; teeth cuspidate and asymmetric, with a rather strong primary cusp and usually cusplets present at all ages; buccopharyngeal denticles confined to anterior third of palate and surface of tongue. Interdorsal space 19 to 24% of total length; trailing edges of dorsal fins, and occasionally anal and caudal fins, naked with a broad, conspicuous dark band of bare ceratotrichia; first dorsal broadly triangular, with posteroventrally sloping posterior margin, its midbase closer to pelvic bases than to pectorals; pectoral fins moderately large, length of anterior margins 13 to 16% of total length, width of posterior margin 8.1 to 13% of total length; pelvic fins moderate-sized, anterior margin length 6.2 to 7.9% of total length; anal height 2.7 to 3.8% of total length; anal-caudal space greater than second dorsal height and 6.9 to 8.6% of total length; ventral caudal lobe more or less falcate in adults. Crowns of lateral trunk denticles more or less tricuspidate, with longitudinal ridges extending their entire length. Skeleton not hypercalcified in adults; palatoquadrates not subdivided; monospondylous precaudal centra 39 to 45, diplospondylous precaudal centra 54 to 65, precaudal centra 97 to 106. Colour usually iridescent bronzy-brown above, occasionally greyish, white below; no white spots or dark spots or dark bars. Development viviparous. Size moderate, adults 52 to 90 cm.

Distribution
Eastern Pacific: northern California, USA to the Gulf of California; Ecuador and Peru. Source: www.gbif.org

Human uses
fisheries: highly commercial; gamefish: yes; price category: low; price reliability: reliable: based on ex-vessel price for this species

Biology
Viviparous with a yolk-sac placenta; with 3 to 5 young in a litter. Size at birth ranges from 19-21 cm [517]. Distinct pairing with embrace [17086].
Diet: Costa Rica (data base: 340 stomachs analysed): Immature M. henlei had a highly diverse diet (H = 2·57, BA = 0·568), consisting of shrimps, teleosts, stomatopods and cephalopods. The diet from mature M. henlei had a lower diversity and dietary breadth (H = 1·89, BA = 0·474). Additionally, both teleosts and cephalopods represented a high proportion of their diet [17194] [22647].
central coast of the Colombian Pacific [25131]: (data basis: 123, 6 had empty stomach, TL 40-77.5 cm); Diet: Teleostei (93.16% percent by frequency of occurrence=FO), Brachyura (40.17%FO), Dendrobranchiata ( 22.22%FO)

Size / Weight / Age
100.0 cm TL (male/unsexed; [2246]); max. reported age: 13 years (Ref. 6098)

Habitat
demersal; marine; depth range 0 - 200 m (Ref. 9253)

Remarks
shark-references Species-ID=3796;

Parasites (arranged by Jürgen Pollerspöck)
Myxosporea

• Chloromyxum ovatum Jameson, 1929 [23380]

Cestoda

• Lacistorhynchus dollfusi Beveridge & Sakanari, 1987 [16253] [16112]
• Lacistorhynchus tenuis (Van Beneden, 1858) [23382]
• Orygmatobothrium musteli (Van Beneden, 1850) [16383]
• Orygmatobothrium sp. [16929] [23771]
• Symcallio evani (Caira, 1985) [23771]
• Symcallio riseri (Nasin, Caira & Euzet, 1997) [16201] [21796] [23771]

Trematoda

• Otodistomum veliporum (Creplin, 1837) Stafford, 1904 [23771]

Copepoda

• Achtheinus dentatus Wilson, 1911 [14331]
• Achtheinus oblongus Wilson, 1908 [14331] [23244]
• Echthrogaleus coleoptratus (Guérin-Méneville, 1837) [23244]
• Lernaeopoda galei Krøyer, 1837 [23244]
• Pandarus bicolor Leach, 1816 [23244]

Hirudinea

• Branchellion lobata Moore, 1952 [23244]