Gobius incognitus Kovačić & Šanda, 2016

Kovačić, Marcelo, Renoult, Julien P., Pillon, Roberto, Svensen, Rudolf, Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Engin, Semih & Louisy, Patrick, 2022, Identification of Mediterranean marine gobies (Actinopterygii: Gobiidae) of the continental shelf from photographs of in situ individuals, Zootaxa 5144 (1), pp. 1-103 : 58-59

Gobius incognitus Kovačić & Šanda, 2016 ( Fig. 37 )—Incognito Goby

Gobius incognitus Kovačić & Šanda, 2016: 1106 , type locality: northwestern Mediterranean , France, Gulf of Lion , Banyulssur-Mer, Paulliles beach.

Size. Known adult size about 9–10 cm total length.

Morphology. D VI + I,13–14; A I,12–13; P 19–20. Medium-sized goby with moderately long body, large head, short snout. Caudal peduncle deep, but lower than body. Dorsal fins of similar height, the first dorsal fin with more or less rounded edge and no elongated spines.

Caudal fin rounded. Scales small, visible on body and usually on predorsal area as dense pattern. Predorsal area and nape scaled ( Kovačić & Šanda 2016).

Live coloration. Body uniformly pale gray, greenish gray or light brown, covered with longitudinal lines of brown dots ( Fig. 37A ). The dots are broadest, darkest and most numerous along the lateral midline, where they coalesce in well-aligned midlateral dashes or blotches separated by white spaces. Eyes with a conspicuous horizontal stripe through the center, upper iris with separate brown dots or radiating stripes without a longitudinal mark uniting them ( Fig. 37b ). V-shaped line in the center of the snout. Three longitudinal rows of dots recognizable on cheek or in irregular pattern ( Fig. 33d ); the median row more or less regularly crosses the center of the cheek, parallel to the lower row. There is a well-defined dark dot at posterior angle of mouth, so the lower row begins with an isolated dot at the corner of the mouth, usually followed by 2 short horizontal dashes. Upper lip with brown marks in addition to the dot on the corner of the mouth ( Fig. 37b ) ( Kovačić & Šanda 2016; Renoult et al. 2022).

Similar species. Gobius bucchichi , G. fallax .

Habitat. Infralittoral species, known from 0.5–12 m depth mostly on shallow and sub-horizontal bottoms with sand and stones or rocks ( Kovačić & Šanda 2016). At low depths it is typically associated with the sea anemone Anemonia viridis (Tiralongo et al. 2020) .

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean. Confirmed presence from the northwestern Mediterranean to the Aegean Sea and Israel ( Kovačić & Šanda 2016).

Figures

FIGURE 33. The mouth unmarked at corner in A) G. bucchichi and B) H. ingressus. Dark dot on the corner of the mouth in C) G. auratus, D) G. incognitus, E) G. xanthocephalus and F) G. fallax. Area marked with hollow circle. Photos by R. Svensen (A), S. Engin (B), M. Kovačić (C, D, F), and P. Louisy (E). C and F photographed in a tank.

FIGURE 37. A) Live coloration in its natural habitat of Gobius incognitus. B) Upper lip with brown marks in addition to the dot on the corner of the mouth; upper half of the eye with separate brown dots or radiating stripes without longitudinal curved mark. Photos by S.V. Bogorodsky, Turkey, Aegean Sea.