Common Name
Shortfin Searobin
Year Described
Regan, 1914
Identification
Dorsal Fin: X-XI, 11
Anal Fin: 10-11
Pectoral Fin: 12
Lateral Line: 45-50
Gill Rakers: 12-17 (lower limb)
Body stout but elongate and slightly compressed rearward. Head is large, bony, and heavily sculptured with pronounced ridges and spines. Head relatively deep with very large protruding eyes. Duck-billed snout is very short. Snout with short and blunt spiny plates with triangular projections beyond upper jaw. No spines around nostrils. Mouth is subterminal and large in size, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw reaches anterior orbit. Spine in front of eyes. No cirri around eyes. Preopercle and opercle usually bear strong spines. Preopercular spine reaches edge of opercle but is not longer than opercular spine. Opercular spine longer than cleithral spine. Small fan-like pectoral fins with strongly branched rays, with the lower three rays free, thickened, and separate from the fin membrane. Pectoral fin viewed from above broadly rounded. Pectorals when folded reach anterior third of anal fin base. Two dorsal fins: one spiny and one soft rays. First dorsal spine not filamentous in either sex. Anal fin opposite soft dorsal fin. Caudal fin is truncate. Pelvic fin underneath pectoral fin on belly. Body covered in small ctenoid scales with the exception of the naked ventral surface. Nape and opercular membrane naked. Lateral line is continuous.
Color
Upper body and head pale brownish with red spots and blotches. Abruptly white on lower half. Eye golden-brown. Spiny dorsal fin mottled whitish and red with a dark spot between spines 4-5. Soft dorsal fin pale with two rows of reddish spots along rays, and a reddish margin. Pectoral fin reddish to golden with a prominent large ocellated black blotch on the middle of the fin. Fin margin white. Anal and pelvic fins white. Tail with indistinct bands of reddish and/or golden spots and a white lower lobe.
Size
Maximum size to 19cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 27-366 (usually 137-275m).
Range
North Carolina to Uruguay. Both continental and insular localities.
References
Miller, G. C. & W. J. Richards. 1991. Revision of the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific genus Bellator (Pisces: Triglidae). Bulletin of Marine Science v. 48 (no. 3): 635-656.