Lesueurigobius sanzi ( de Buen, 1918 )

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 : 68-69

Lesueurigobius sanzi ( de Buen, 1918) ( Fig. 60 )—Sanzo’s Goby

Gobius sanzi de Buen, 1918: 296 ; type locality: western Mediterranean Sea , Spain, Malaga coast, Calatoros .

Size. Maximum size 9.5 cm total length (Miller 1986).

Morphology. D VI + I,15; A I,16–17; P 22 (Miller 1986). Moderately large goby with high, laterally compressed and robust body, head high and moderately large. Snout large and blunt. Eyes dorsolateral, interorbital space narrow. Caudal peduncle deep, almost same depth as body. The first dorsal fin with elongated spines, third and fourth spine longest. Caudal fin lanceolate. Predorsal area and nape scaled. Scales large, visible on freshly dead specimens on body and usually also on predorsal area, visibility on live specimens unknown.

Freshly dead coloration. Body fawn, with diffuse vertical yellow and dark brown bands across body. Margins of anal and caudal fins with a blackish shade ( Fig. 60 ); live coloration unknown (Miller 1986).

Similar species. Lesueurigobius friesii , L. suerii .

Habitat. Circalittoral species, known from 47–100 m on soft bottoms, sand and mud (Miller 1986).

Geographic distribution. Atlantic Ocean and adjacent Mediterranean: known from the eastern Atlantic coast from Portugal to Mauritania (Miller 1986) and also off northern Namibia. In the Mediterranean it is known from the Alboran Sea (Miller 1986).

Figures

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