Didogobius schlieweni Miller, 1993

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 : 50-52

Didogobius schlieweni Miller, 1993 ( Fig. 7 )—Andromeda Goby

Didogobius schlieweni Miller, 1993: 1413 , type locality: Adriatic Sea , Croatia, Unije Island , near Cres Island, Croatia .

Size. Maximum size about 4.6 cm total length ( Ballesta et al. 1998).

Morphology. D VI + I,12–13; A I,11; P 17 ( Miller 1993; Ballesta et al. 1998). Small goby with elongate body, head depressed and dorsally flattened. Interdorsal space membranous. Caudal peduncle deep, almost as deep as body. Dorsal fins of similar height. The first dorsal fin with more or less rounded margin (second spine the longest but not elongate). Caudal fin rounded. Scales present, small, at best visible on body as pattern of paler dots.

Live coloration. Head and body dark brown to purplish with a longitudinal series of 3–6 definite white blotches as large as or larger than eye diameter on dorsal half of body and white transverse band in predorsal area; scattered white dots in variable amount on head and sometimes on body; median fins black, outer margin of dorsal fins and posterior margin of caudal fin with a broad white band ( Fig. 7 ) ( Ballesta et al. 1998; Louisy 2015; Le Bris et al. 2019b, 2021).

Similar species. Chromogobius quadrivittatus .

Habitat. Infralittoral species. Only observed at night among layers of pebbles in rocky gullies or in stony slopes at depths of 1.5–14 m; also observed in Posidonia meadows ( Miller 1993; Francour 2008; Kampouris et al. 2019; Le Bris et al. 2019b, 2021; Patzner 2021).

Geographic distribution. Mediterranean, with records from the northwestern Mediterranean ( Ballesta et al. 1998; Francour 2008; Iglésias et al. 2021b), Adriatic Sea ( Miller 1993; Kovačić 2005), and Greece, Aegean Sea ( Kampouris et al. 2019).

Figures

FIGURE 7. Live coloration in its natural habitat of Didogobius schlieweni. Photo by C. Balisky, Marseille, Southern France.