Lesueurigobius suerii ( Risso, 1810 )

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 : 69-70

Lesueurigobius suerii ( Risso, 1810) ( Fig. 16 )—Lesueur’s Goby

Gobius suerii Risso, 1810: 387 ; type locality: northwestern Mediterranean Sea , France, Nice .

Size. Maximum size 7.6 cm total length ( Lamprakis et al. 2003).

Morphology. D VI + I,13–14; A I,13–14; P 17–20 (Miller 1986). Moderately small goby with laterally compressed body, head high and moderately large. Snout blunt, short. Eyes dorsolateral, high on head with top forming part of dorsal profile. Caudal peduncle deep, but lower than body depth. The first dorsal fin slightly higher than the second, spines not elongated. Caudal fin lanceolate. Predorsal area and nape naked (Miller 1986). Scales large, visible on body ( Fig. 60 ).

Live coloration. Body with a midlateral series of poorly defined dark spots; more irregular, often oblique markings along back. Background color grayish beige with light blue to reddish hue, sometimes with ill-defined yellow bars ( Fig. 16 ). Head with 3–4 oblique yellow to orangish stripes over cheek, preopercle and opercle, and another slanting upper stripe on side of nape. Usually, second dorsal, caudal and anal fins with an orange outer margin and a blue to whitish submarginal band, sometimes faint.

Similar species. Lesueurigobius friesii , L. suerii , Oxyurichthys petersii .

Habitat. Infralittoral and circalittoral to bathyal species, known from infralittoral to 440 m on soft bottoms, mostly mud, muddy sand and possibly also sand (Miller 1986; Bérenger et al. 2015; Rufray et al. 2016; Goren et al. 2019).

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean. In the Mediterranean, known from the northern coast from Alboran Sea to Levant, and also on the south coast from Algeria (Miller 1986). In the Atlantic Ocean, it was recorded from Morocco and Canaries (Miller 1986).

Figures

FIGURE 16. Live coloration in its natural habitat of Lesueurigobius suerii. Photo by S. Le Bris, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Southern France.

FIGURE 60. Freshly dead coloration of Lesueurigobius sanzi. Photo by A. Kassar, Beni Saf, Alboran Sea, Algeria.