Author: (Kessler, 1874)
Neogobius eurycephalus (Kessler, 1874)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Neogobius eurycephalus (Kessler, 1874) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: nape scaled completely, scales cycloid. Head depth at eyes slightly less or equal to width. Inter-orbit between 0.4 and 0.6 eye diameter. Angle of jaws below anterior quarter of eye. Snout 1.3-1.5 orbit. Upper lip only moderately swollen posteriorly, if at all, about three-quarters to equalling lateral preorbital area. Pelvic disc about three-quarters abdomen length, anterior membrane with large, angular, lateral lobes, up to 0.4 width of rear edge. Caudal peduncle depth 0.80.9 own length. D1 VI (V-VII); D2 I + 17-19 (16-20); A I + 13-14 (12-15); P 19-20 (18-21). Scales in lateral series 63-71 (58-74). Vertebrae 34 (33-35). Colour: dark, with pale edge along second dorsal fin. Size: to 20 cm.
Habitat: inshore, on sand and gravel, about stones, in sheltered areas. Food: no data. Reproduction: end of December to end of April (Varna, Black Sea); repeat spawning. Sexually mature at 2 years. Hybridization: intergrades with N. platyrostris on Crimean and northern Caucasus coasts of Black Sea (Pinchuk, 1968).
Distribution: Black Sea and Sea of Azov.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. No data.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.
Subspecies
Neogobius eurycephalus eurycephalus: Sea of Azov.
Neogobius eurycephalus odessicus Pinchuk, 1977: north-western Black Sea.