Common Name
Widehead Armored Searobin
Year Described
Goode & Bean, 1886
Identification
Dorsal Fin: VIII, 18-19
Anal Fin: 19-20
Pectoral Fin: 11-13 + 2 free rays
Gill Rakers:
Body elongate and flattened ventrally, with four rows of thick, heavy scales forming an armor-like covering. Head very wide and triangular, tapering gradually rearward. Head with flattened duck-bill snout about the width of eyes and squared-off at tip. Rostral projections long (= snout length), slender, widely separated (= interorbital) and slightly divergent. Head heavily armored. Edges of snout and head with weak undulations. Edge of head expanded greatly into a noticeable pointed shelf but no strong spines. No spine at nostril or snout plate base. Eye large. Interorbital distance relatively narrow. Anterior edge of first body plate posterior to front edge of pelvic girdle. Two chin barbels. Chin barbels short; 12-13 in six clusters. Dominant chin barbels moderate and heavily branched. Dorsal fins separated: the first small and second long-based. Anal fin about the same length as dorsal fin. Pectoral fins small and fan-like with two long free rays that are used to interact/crawl along the seafloor. Pelvic fins small and widely separated under pectoral base. Caudal fin truncate.
Color
Head and body reddish dorsally with black scrawling and reticulations. Belly whitish. Dorsal and caudal fins with broad dark margins. Pectoral fin red to blackish. Eye pale.
Size
Maximum size to 20cm SL.
Habitat
Found on soft bottoms from 100-783m.
Range
SC to Colombia and the Lesser Antilles and the Gulf of Mexico.
References
Miller, G.C. & W.J. Richards. 2003. Peristediidae. Armoured searobins (armoured gurnards). p. 1278-1285. In: K.E. Carpenter (ed.) FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Vol. 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae).
Teague, G.W. 1961. The armored sea-robins of America, a revision of the American species of the family Peristediidae. Anales del Museo Nacional de Historia Natural de Montevideo (Serie 2) v. 7 (no. 2): 1-27, 2 pls. + Pls. 1-3.