Gobius xanthocephalus Heymer & Zander 1992

Gobius xanthocephalus Heymer & Zander, 1992 (Fig. 38)—Yellow-headed Goby Gobius xanthocephalus Heymer & Zander, 1992: 305, type locality: western Mediterranean Sea, France, Banyuls-sur-Mer, Ile Grosse. Size. Known adult size about 9 cm total length. Morphology. D VI + I,13–16; A I,13–15; P 18–20. Medium-sized goby with moderately elongate body, large head, and a short, slightly acute and oblique snout. Caudal peduncle deep, but lower than body. Dorsal fins of similar height, the first dorsal fin may be slightly higher in appearance, with more or less rounded distal edge and no elongate spines. Caudal fin rounded. Scales present on body and on predorsal area, usually visible on photographs at least on body. Live coloration. Head yellowish, more intensely on the snout and in the interorbital space, contrasting with a light gray or whitish body (Fig. 38). Head and body covered with longitudinal lines of well-defined orange to dark red dots. Eyes with brown stripes radiating from the pupil over iris to the orbital rim, 2 of them constituting a broad horizontal stripe across the pupil; the upper eye radial stripes are connected by an irregular longitudinal curved line (Fig. 38b). Upper lip with orange markings. Lower lip with a median W-shaped mark. Snout with Mshaped line and an oblique preorbital bar (Fig. 38b). One isolated brown to dark red dot at the corner of the mouth, followed by 2 short horizontal dashes (Fig. 33e). Similar species. Gobius auratus morph 2, G. fallax. Habitat. Infralittoral species, known from 1–36 m depth (Heymer & Zander 1992; Wirtz & Herrera 1995) on hard (e.g., bedrock, coralligenous) or mixed bottoms (e.g., sandy patches with pebbles, boulders, and seagrass). Geographic distribution. Northeastern Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Sea. In the Mediterranean, recorded in the northwestern Mediterranean (Miller 1986), including the Balearic Island of Ibiza (Fisher et al. 2007) and Corsica (Francour et al. 2010). Isolated populations confirmed in Crimea (Boltachev et al. 2009) and in the eastern part of the Black Sea (Vasil’eva & Bogorodsky 2004). In the Atlantic Ocean: from Galicia, Northern Spain (Villegas-Riìos & BanÞoìn 2010) to the Canary Islands (Wirtz & Herrera 1995).
Published as part of Kovačić, Marcelo, Renoult, Julien P., Pillon, Roberto, Svensen, Rudolf, Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Engin, Semih & Louisy, Patrick, 2022, Identification of Mediterranean marine gobies (Actinopterygii: Gobiidae) of the continental shelf from photographs of in situ individuals, pp. 1-103 in Zootaxa 5144 (1) on page 65, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5144.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/6601561
{"references":["Heymer, A. & Zander, C. D. (1992) Le statut de Gobius auratus Risso, 1810 et description de Gobius xanthocephalus n. sp. de la Mediterranee (Teleostei, Gobiidae). Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolution, 119, 291 - 314.","Wirtz, P. & Herrera, R. (1995) The lobster Enoplometopus antillensis (Decapoda: Enoplometopidae) and the goby Gobius xanthocephalus (Pisces: Gobiidae) - new records for the marine fauna of the Canary Islands. Arquipelago, Life and Marine Sciences, 13 A, 115 - 118.","Francour, P., Bodilis, P., Cottalorda, J. M. & Seytre, C. (2010) Inventaire des Gobiidae dans la Reiserve Naturelle de Scandola (Corse) et aI proximitei de ses limites. Contrat Parc Naturel Reigional de la Corse. Universitei de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, ECOMERS publ., Nice, 1 - 54.","Boltachev, A. R., Karpova, E. P. & Danilyuk, O. N. (2009) Findings of new and rare fish species in the coastal zone of the Crimea (the Black Sea). Journal of Ichthyology, 49 (4), 277 - 291. https: // doi. org / 10.1134 / S 0032945209040018","Vasil'eva, E. D. & Bogorodsky, S. V. (2004) Two new species of gobies (Gobiidae) in the ichthyofauna of the Black Sea. Journal of Ichthyology, 44, 599 - 606.","Villegas-Riios, D. & BanToin, R. (2010) First record and new meristic data of Gobius xanthocephalus (Gobiidae) from Galician waters (NW Spain). Cybium, 34 (3), 311 - 314. https: // doi. org / 10.26028 / cybium / 2010 - 343 - 010"]}