Author: Risso, 1826
Syngnathus abaster Risso, 1826
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Syngnathus abaster Risso, 1827 (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: rings 14-18 + 32-41, D 24-40, P 10-14, total subdorsal rings 6-11. Snout length half or less than half of head length, snout depth about 2-4 in snout length; median post-orbital portion of head not clearly elevated. Colour: brownish to greenish, with dark or pale spots or bars on trunk and tail; often with dark spots or stripe along dorsal fin base. Size: to 21 cm TL in Black Sea or 15 cm elsewhere.
Habitat: euryhaline; often among detritus or vegetation over sand or mud to depths of about 5 m. Food: no data. Reproduction: mostly brooding April-October, pouch-egg diameter 1.6-2 mm; early freeliving young 23 mm TL.
Distribution: Mediterranean and Black Seas, also Atlantic coast northward to southern Biscay.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. D'Ancona, 1933: 290, pl. XVII (fig. 4) (as 5. abaster) and 291, pl. XVII (fig. 5-6) (as 5. Agassizii).
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.