Microdesmus longipinnis
Pink Wormfish
NS
G5
Collection Details
Specimens
Photos
There are no photos available for this taxon yet.
Records
Taxonomic Hierarchy
Actinopterygii (Ray-finned Fishes)
Perciformes (Perciformes, Also Called the Acanthopteri)
Microdesmidae (Wormfishes)
Microdesmus
Microdesmus longipinnis (Pink 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.)
and processed using AI-assisted text extraction.
It may contain errors in spelling, punctuation, or formatting.
When citing, please reference the original source rather than this page.
Learn more about our species accounts.
Characters
Slender and elongate body shape; rounded caudal 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 width about equal to eye diameter; upper and lower lips form moderately developed lateral flange at corner of mouth; lower lip entire and not notched below anterior naris; jaw teeth conical and in two irregular series; tongue rounded; gill opening oblique and about 150% of pectoral-fin-base length; head length 5.9%–16.2% SL; pre-anal-fin length 47.5%–60.8% SL; body depth 4.2%–8.1% SL; dorsal fin originates anterior to tip of appressed pectoral fin with 19-22 spines and 45-53 rays; pelvic fin has 1 spine and 3 unbranched rays; anal fin has 41-47 rays; dorsal and anal fins connected to caudal fin by low membrane; body sparsely covered with minute, embedded, nonimbricated scales; head naked.
Pinkish tan coloration.
Distribution
North Carolina and Bermuda to the Cayman Islands in the Lesser Antilles, including the Gulf of Mexico.
Florida to Texas and Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico.
Habitat Associations
Tropical Atlantic; depth range not specified.
Biology
Maximum known size is 257 mm SL.
Known from muddy littoral and estuarine habitats (Ref. 81289). Burrows in shallow muddy and sandy bottoms (Ref. 7251). Postlarvae and early juveniles (to ca 2-2.5 cm SL) may occur in surface plankton to distances of 15 km or more offshore; subadults and adults occasionally found swimming near the surface at night (Ref. 10815).
IUCN Red List Status: Least Concern (LC), assessed 2014-01-09.
References
Dawson 1962a
Robins and Ray 1986
Boschung 1992
Smith 1997
Castro-Aguirre et al. 1999
Smith-Vaniz et al. 1999
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.
Dawson, C.E. (1990) Microdesmidae. p. 960-961. In J. C. Quéro, J. C. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post and L. Saldanha (eds.) Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI, Paris; and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.
Harrison, I.J., P.J. Miller and F. Pezold (2003) Microdesmidae. p. 667-669. In D. Paugy, C. Lévêque and G.G Teugels (eds.) The fresh and brackish water fishes of West Africa Volume 2. Coll. faune et flore tropicales 40. Institut de recherche de développement, Paris, France, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris, France and Musée royal de l'Afrique Central, Tervuren, Belgium, 815p.
Comments On Microdesmus longipinnis