Deltentosteus quadrimaculatus (Valenciennes, 1837)

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 : 50

Deltentosteus quadrimaculatus (Valenciennes, 1837) ( Fig. 52 )—Four-spotted Goby

Gobius quadrimaculatus Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1837: 44; type locality: northwestern Mediterranean Sea , France, Nice .

Size. Maximum size 8 cm total length (Miller 1986).

Morphology. D VI + I,8–9; A I,8–9; P 17–18 (Miller 1986). Moderately small goby with subcylindrical body, laterally compressed towards caudal fin, head slightly depressed and moderately large. Snout large, gently sloping. Eyes large. Mouth superior, oblique, tip of lower jaw at the horizontal level of eye. Angle of jaws below anterior half of orbit. Predorsal area and nape scaled. Caudal peduncle slender, lower than body depth. The first dorsal fin higher than the second, but with no elongated spines, except in adult males where the second spine is elongated and filamentous (Miller 1986). Caudal fin rounded to truncate.

Live coloration. Body mainly brown or beige dorsally with 5 pale dorsal saddles, faint with no black outlines, each terminating with a midlateral dark blotch. These midlateral dark blotches of irregular shape, less than 1/3 of body height ( Fig. 52 ). Caudal-fin base mark T-shaped and higher than other midlateral marks, covering about entire caudal peduncle height ( Fig. 52 ). Ventral half of body whitish. Females may display a pale blue dot on nape just behind eyes, partly circled in brown. The first dorsal fin with a black spot distally between fifth and sixth spines ( Fig. 52a ), and with three pronounced dark streaks along first dorsal spine in males ( Fig. 52b ) ( Miller & Loates 1997; Louisy 2015; Pillon et al. 2016a).

Similar species. Deltentosteus collonianus , Pomatoschistus adriaticus , P. marmoratus , P. minutus .

Habitat. Infralittoral to circalittoral species, known from 2–150 m on soft bottoms, mostly sand, also on mud ( Louisy 2015; Pillon et al. 2016a; Patzner 2021).

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic Ocean: in the Mediterranean, from Gibraltar along northern coast to the Levant; in the Atlantic, from Galicia to Morocco (Miller 1986).

Figures

FIGURE 52. Live coloration in its natural habitat of Deltentosteus quadrimaculatus.A) Photo by R. Pillon, Maddalena, Sardinia, Italy. B) Male with enlarged, pointed first dorsal fin, photo by L. Bérenger, Cagnes-sur-Mer, Southern France.