Common Name
Banded Basslet
Year Described
Robins & Colin, 1979
Identification
Dorsal Fin: XII, 9
Anal Fin: III, 8
Pelvic Fin: I, 5
Pectoral Fin: 15-17 (usually 16)
Caudal Rays: 17 (principal)
Gill Rakers: 19-22 total (usually 20-21)
Vertebrae: 10 precaudal, 15 caudal; 25 total
Lateral Scale Rows: ~23
Body stout with blunt snout. Four supraorbital pores; two pores on rear margin of orbit. Lateral line absent. Preopercular margin smooth. Pelvic fin extends well past anal fin origin when depressed. Outer procurrent caudal rays thickened (3 ventrally and dorsally). Caudal fin with rounded lobes.
Color
Body whitish with a purplish to lavender cast dorsally and on the head. Brown eye and middle body band obvious and about width of orbit. Middle band reaches belly. Rear brown band apparent but may be faint. A prominent ocellus on the rear dorsal fin surrounded by white. Dorsal fin gray to blue with 2-3 rows of yellow spots and a submarginal yellow stripe. Anal fin gray to blue with a few scattered yellow spots. Caudal fin gray to blue with many small yellow spots on fin membranes. Pelvic fins whitish with a few tiny golden spots. Pectoral fin clear.
Size
Maximum size to 45.5mm SL.
Habitat
Deep reefs from 200-350m.
Range
Scattered records in the Caribbean Sea: Bahamas, Cuba, Mexico, Belize, Nicaragua, Jamaica, and Barbuda.
References
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.
Robins, C.R. and P.L. Colin. 1979. Three new grammid fishes from the Caribbean Sea. Bulletin of Marine Science v. 29 (no. 1): 41-52.