Buenia massutii Kovačić, Ordines & Schliewen, 2017

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 : 44-45

Buenia massutii Kovačić, Ordines & Schliewen, 2017 ( Fig. 49 )—Massuti’s Goby

Buenia massutii Kovačić, Ordines & Schliewen, 2017a ; type locality: western Mediterranean Sea, Spain, Balearic Islands, Mallorca .

Size. Maximum size 4.1 cm total length ( Ordines et al. 2019a).

Morphology. D VI + I,7; A I,6–7; P 16–17 ( Kovačić et al. 2017a; Ordines et al. 2019a, 2019b). Small goby with subcylindrical body, laterally compressed towards caudal fin. Head slightly depressed and fairly long. Eyes large and close together, with narrow interorbital space. Caudal peduncle slender, clearly lower than body height. Second spine of first dorsal fin elongate in males, reaching to or behind posterior end of the second dorsal fin when folded down. Caudal fin rounded. Scales present, visibility on live specimens unknown.

Freshly dead coloration. Head and body yellowish white to dusky white with scattered yellow, orange and dark brown markings. Body with 5 black marks, the first one over abdomen below first dorsal fin, three short vertical black marks at and below lateral midline and fifth longer vertical mark on caudal-fin base ( Fig. 49a ). Eyes grayish to brownish, occasionally with small pale gray dots. A rectangular area of small close-set dark dots below eye.

Similar species. Buenia affinis .

Habitat. Circalittoral, on Peyssonnelia and maerl red algae beds, coarse sand and deep-sea oyster shell remains bottoms from around 50 m to 116 m depth ( Kovačić et al. 2017a; Ordines et al. 2019a, 2019b). A small individual photographed at 41 m depth on detritic sand ( Fig. 49B ) might be this species ( Rufray et al. 2021).

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic Ocean: Gulf of Cádiz, Atlantic; Alboran Island, Águilas and off Balearic Islands, Spain ( Kovačić et al. 2017a; Ordines et al. 2019a, 2019b); possibly southern France ( Rufray et al. 2021).

Figures

FIGURE 49. A) Freshly dead coloration of Buenia massutii, photo by M. Kovačić, Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. B) Buenia cf. massutii live coloration in its natural habitat, photo by X. Rufray, Saint-Raphaël, Southern France.