Common Name
Leopard Searobin
Year Described
Jordan & Gilbert, 1882
Identification
Dorsal Fin: X, 12
Anal Fin: 10
Pectoral Fin: 13-14
Gill Rakers: 10-13 (usually 11)
Body elongate and slightly compressed. Head is large, bony, and heavily sculptured with pronounced ridges and spines. Head relatively elongated. Duck-billed snout is long. Mouth is subterminal and small in size, containing bands of villiform teeth on the jaws, vomer, and palatines. Jaw reaches well short of eye. No spines at nostrils. Preopercle and opercle usually bear strong spines. Preopercular spine reaches edge of opercle. Large, 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 almost perfectly semicircular (broadly rounded). Pectorals when folded reach anterior third of anal fin base. Two dorsal fins: one spiny and one soft rays. Anal fin opposite soft dorsal fin. Caudal fin is truncate or slightly rounded. Pelvic fin underneath pectoral fin on belly. Body covered in small ctenoid scales with the exception of the naked ventral surface. Chest and throat naked. Nape scaled. Opercular membrane above spine partially scaled. Lateral line is continuous.
Color
Body pale brown or gray with numerous reddish to golden brown spots on body and head. Usually displays a few dark, irregular oblique bands formed from larger blotches. Spiny dorsal with small spots between spines 1-2 and 4-5 and mottling. Dorsal fins pale brown with orange to brown spots forming bands across fin. Pectoral fins brown with faint concentric bands, orange/red-brown spotting, and white edging. Often with a whitish blotch at the midpoint of rear half of pectoral fin. Anal fin pale with a darker median stripe. Pelvic fin pale. Caudal fin faintly banded with a dark basal area and brown rear margin. Body colored spots present on the dorsal half.
Size
Maximum size to 25cm SL.
Habitat
Soft bottoms from 5-91m (usually <46m).
Range
Virginia to the Yucatan Peninsula. Continental coasts only.
References
McEachran, J. D. & J. D. Fechhelm. 2005. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Volume 2: Scorpaeniformes to Tetraodontiformes. University of Texas Press, Austin. i-viii +1-1004.
Richards, W. J. & G. C. Miller. 2003. Triglidae (pp. 1266-1277). In: Carpenter, K. E. (ed.) 2003. The living marine resources of the Western Central Atlantic. Volume 2: Bony fishes part 1 (Acipenseridae to Grammatidae). FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes and American Society of Ichthyologist and Herpetologists Special Publication No. 5. FAO, Rome. v. 2: i-vii + 602-1373.