Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Hippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Hippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: rings 11-12 + 34-38, D 16-19 (usually 18 or fewer), P 13-15 (usually 14). Snout relatively short, its length usually more than 3 in HL; dermal flaps usually few or absent. Colour: variably brown to black, sometimes blotched with pale, dorsal fin usually with a dark submarginal stripe. Size: to 15 cm TL.
Habitat: mostly in shallow inshore waters among algae, etc. Food: no data. Reproduction: mostly brooding April-October.
Distribution: Atlantic coasts from Wadden Sea southward to Portugal; also Mediterranean and Black Seas, including Sea of Azov. Elsewhere, the Canaries and African coast southwards to the Gulf of Guinea.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Rauther, 1925: 10, pl. XXI (fig. 230 231) | d'Ancona, 1933: 294-296, fig. 243, pl. XVII (fig. 9) (as H. brevirostris) | Bini, 1969, 3: 172, fig.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.