Microdesmus lanceolatus
Lancetail Wormfish
Collection Details
Specimens
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Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Microdesmidae (Wormfishes)
Microdesmus
Microdesmus lanceolatus (Lancetail Wormfish)
Description
This species account was compiled from
Composite (multiple sources) (McEachran, J.D. and J.D. Fechhelm. Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. University of Texas Press, Austin.)
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Characters
Slender and elongate body; lanceolate caudal fin; small spots along anal fin; moderately blunt snout; strongly rounded lower jaw; anterior naris a short, widely flared tube near upper lip; posterior naris porelike with raised rim near anterior margin of eye; lower jaw projects slightly beyond upper jaw; upper jaw extends to about middle of eye; mouth oblique; interorbital distance about equal to eye diameter; lower lip entire and not notched below anterior naris; conical jaw teeth in two irregular series; rounded tongue; gill opening oblique and about 150% of pectoral-fin-base length; measurements (% SL): head length about 12.6%, pectoral fin length about 6.2%, pelvic fin length about 5.5%, depth about 6.6%; measurements (% HL): snout length about 24.6%, eye diameter about 8.8%; pectoral fin with 13 rays; dorsal fin originates anterior to tip of appressed pectoral fin with 12 spines and 56 rays; pelvic fin with 1 spine and 3 unbranched rays; anal fin with 55 rays; dorsal and anal fins connected to caudal fin by a low membrane; body sparsely covered with minute, embedded, nonimbricated scales; head naked
Pale straw with very small black spots along base of anal fin
Distribution
Western Atlantic from the northern Gulf of Mexico along Louisiana and Texas
Northern Gulf of Mexico along Texas
Habitat Associations
Marine. demersal.
Biology
45.3 mm SL
Burrows in soft muddy and sandy bottoms in shallow waters.
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2011-08-11. Resilience: High.
References
Dawson 1962a
Hoese and Moore 1977
Hoese and Moore 1998
Robins and Ray 1986
Smith 1997
Thacker 2002
Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray (1986) A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p.
Smith, D.G. and C.E. Thacker (2000) Late-stage larvae of the family Microdesmidae (Teleostei, Gobioidei) from Belize, with notes on systematics and biogeography in the western Atlantic. Bull. Mar. Sci. 67(3):997-1012.
Bogutskaya, N.G. (2007) Preliminary assignment of coordinates to type localities in the Catalog of Fishes. Unpublished dbf file.
Comments On Microdesmus lanceolatus