Author: Linnaeus, 1758
Gaidropsarus mediterraneus Linnaeus, 1758
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Gaidropsarus mediterraneus (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: a small three-bearded rockling, the head rather pointed and narrow, rounded in cross-section. Second dorsal finrays 51-63 (mode 56); anal finrays 43-53 (mode 47). Vertebrae 46-49 (usually 47 or 48). Colour: back and upper flank dark brown, sometimes reddish brown; diffuse lighter blotches on cheeks and underside of head; pale brown to cream ventrally. Size: to 25 cm SL.
Habitat: intertidal rock pools and sublittorally on rocks down to 27 m. Food: fishes, also decapod, amphipod and isopod crustaceans, polychaetes and algae. Reproduction: probably spawns offshore in July-August off British Isles, but in winter and early spring in Mediterranean; young stages described, but confused with those of G. vulgaris.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from the Orkneys to Spain, also Mediterranean, Adriatic, Black Sea.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Vodjanitzki and Kazanova, 1954: 269, fig. 41 | Duka, 1958: 126, fig. 4-14 | Bini, 1971, 3: 82, fig. | D'Ancona, 1933c: 241, fig. 220-226, pl.13, fig. 15-20, pl. 14, fig. 13-22.
Otoliths (sagitta). Sanz EcheverrÃa, 1935: 259, pl. XXX (fig. 1-4).