Common Name
Dusky Basslet
Year Described
Böhlke, 1960
Identification
Dorsal Fin: XII-XIII, 9
Anal Fin: III, 9
Pelvic Fin: I, 5
Pectoral Fin: 17
Caudal Rays (segmented): 19
Gill Rakers: 3 upper, 9 lower; 12 total
Vertebrae: 10 precaudal, 15 caudal; 25 total
Lateral Scale Rows: 26
Body stout with a blunt snout. Lateral line absent. Preopercular margin smooth. Caudal fin rounded. Outer procurrent caudal rays thickened.
Color
Body burnt sienna brown, with alternating light and dark stripes corresponding with scale rows. Head rose-red, extending to the pelvic fin base, pectoral fin base, and dorsal origin. Dark spot on first three dorsal spines and a black partially ocellated spot on the rear part of the soft dorsal fin. The anterior border of the ocellus is white and the rear part is yellow. The yellow continues as a submarginal stripe on the dorsal fin, with a black margin on the whole fin. Rest of dorsal fin with orange pigment. Anal fin similar in pigment, with orange basally, a yellow submarginal stripe, and a black margin. There are three orange and one submarginal yellow band on the black caudal fin. Pelvic fin black with yellow spots.
Size
Maximum known size to 20mm.
Habitat
Over calcareous bottoms from 22-79m (most under 50m).
Range
SW Florida, the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Barbuda, and Navassa Is.
References
Bohlke, J.E. and C.C.G. Chaplin. 1993. Fishes of the Bahamas and adjacent tropical waters. Second edition. Austin, University of Texas Press, 771 p.
Collette, B.B. , J.T. Williams, C. E. Thacker and M.L. Smith. 2003. Shore fishes of Navassa Island, West Indies: a case study on the need for rotenone sampling in reef fish biodiversity studies. aqua, Journal of Ichthyology and Aquatic Biology v. 6 (no. 3): 89-131.
Gilmore, R.G. and R.S. Jones. 1988. Lipogramma flavescens, a new grammid fish from the Bahama Islands, with description and distributional notes on L. evides and L. anabantoides. Bulletin of Marine Science v. 42 (no. 3): 435-445.
Gilmore, R.G. 1997. _ Lipogramma robinsi_, a new basslet from the tropical western Atlantic, with descriptive and distributional notes on L. flavescens and L. anabantoides (Perciformes: Grammatidae). Bulletin of Marine Science v. 60 (no. 3): 782-788.
Hardy, J.D. 2005. Chapter 121: Grammatidae, p. 1341-1351. In: Richards, W.J. (Ed.). Early Stages of Atlantic Fishes: An Identification Guide for the Western Central North Atlantic. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Mooi, R.D. 2002. Grammatidae. In: FAO Species Identification Guide to Fishes of the Western Atlantic. (ed. Carpenter K), pp. 1308–1369. UN FAO Publishers, Rome.