Pholis [Gronovius] Scopeli, 1777
Diagnosis: body elongate and compressed, depth about 8.5 times in SL, equal to length of head. Snout blunt, lips fleshy, teeth small and conical. Dorsal fin long, beginning just behind head and reaching to base of caudal fin, with 75-82 spines; pelvic fins minute, with an outer pungent spine and 1 soft finray, hidden by fleshy outgrowth; anal fin long, with 2 pungent spines and 39-45 soft finrays; caudal fin rounded. Colour: body yellowish-brown with indistinct and numerous transverse bars forming a reticulated pattern; a series of 9-15 (usually 12) distinctive black spots ringed by white along base of dorsal fin; underside of head, pectoral and pelvic fins and hind part of caudal fin yellow-orange. Size: to 25 cm SL.
Habitat: shallow waters (seashore, tide-pools), but descending (especially in winter) to 100 m or more. Food: small crustaceans, polychaetes, molluscs, fish eggs, etc. Reproduction: autumn to winter months (January-February off British coasts, earlier further north); eggs laid in clumps in crevices or in shells, guarded by one or both parents; fry pelagic, seeking bottom at about 33-35 mm.
Distribution: North Atlantic coasts from Kanin Peninsula southward to La Rochelle (including White Sea, North Sea and Baltic), also Iceland, but not eastern Greenland, Spitzbergen or Novaya Zemlya. Elsewhere, western Greenland and Labrador to Delaware Bay.
Species 11; in Clofnam area 1.
Recent revisions: Jensen(1942), Makushok (1958-English translation 1961).
Note. To the synonyms given in Clofnam can be added Asternopteryx Gunther, 1861 (name only; type 'A. gunelliformis'), Urocentrus Kner, 1868 (type U. pictus Kner), Rhodymenichthys Jordan and Evermann, 1896 (type Gunnellus ruberrimus Valenciennes) and Enedrias Jordan and Gilbert, 1898 (type Cunnellus nebulosus Schlegel, 1850).
Species of this genus in the program:
Pholis gunnellus