Pomatoschistus bathi Miller, 1982

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 : 74

Pomatoschistus bathi Miller, 1982 ( Fig. 63 )—Bath’s Goby

Pomatoschistus bathi Miller, 1982: 6 ; type locality: Sea of Marmara , Turkey, Bandýrma, Erdek .

Size. Maximum size 3.2 cm total length (Miller 1986).

Morphology. D VI (V–VI) + I,7–9; A I,6–9; P 13–17 (Miller 1986). Small goby with subcylindrical body, laterally compressed towards caudal fin, head slightly depressed and distinctly small compared to thickness of body ( Fig. 63 ). Snout moderately long. Eyes dorsolateral, interorbital space moderately narrow. Caudal peduncle slender, clearly lower than body depth. The first dorsal fin about equal or shorter than the second dorsal fin, with more or less rounded distal margin. Caudal fin rounded. Scales present on body, usually visible on close-up photographs at least dorsally. Predorsal area naked.

Live coloration. Body from beige to light brown with pale saddles and mottled patterning dorsally and white ventrally, with vertical, iridescent, pale gray streaks. Five small pale dorsal saddles ending ventrally above the midline not linked with a midlateral irregularly shaped, horizontally elongate, black spot below ( Fig. 63 ). Each black lateral spot with a short ventral black extension, except the last, pear-shaped, at caudal-fin base. Short dark dash from the center of the snout to the upper lip, not always visible. Indistinct gray to dark vertical bar extending from ventral edge of eye to corner of mouth; cheek pale ( Fig. 63 ). On side of head, between opercle and upper pectoral-fin base, a horizontal, Y-shaped brown to reddish marking, branching forward ( Fig. 63 ).

Similar species. Pomatoschistus nanus , P. quagga , P. adriaticus , Pseudaphya ferreri .

Habitat. Infralittoral species, on sand and gravel to 15 m depth ( Engin et al. 2018a).

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean and Black Sea. In the Mediterranean Sea, there are records from the northwestern Mediterranean, Adriatic Sea, Aegean Sea and Sea of Marmara (Miller 1986), also Sicily ( Giacobbe et al. 2017). In the Black Sea it was recorded from the eastern coast (Vasil’eva & Bogorodskii 2004) .

Figures

FIGURE 63. Live coloration in its natural habitat of Pomatoschistus bathi. Photo by R. Pillon, Rab Island, Croatia, northern Adriatic Sea.