Sea Dog Butterfly (Blennius Ocellaris)

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

The Butterfly blenny is the only canine species found in European seas at any depth from 10 to 100 m. The color is gray, with several transverse brownish stripes on the sides of the body. Length up to 17-18 cm. It feeds on small benthic invertebrates, less often on algae or small fish. It has no economic value.

Description

The body is rather high, the eyes are large. There is a flat fringed outgrowth on the head above the eye. The supraorbital tentacles are in the form of elongated lobes with fringes along the posterior margin at the apex of the anterior, usually shorter than the diameter of the eyes. At the posterior edge of the short tubular anterior nostril, there is a fringed lobe, sometimes reaching the posterior nostril. On each side of the body of a sea dog-butterfly, slightly below the beginning of the dorsal fin along a short fringed blade. The interorbital space is concave.

Related article Interesting facts about sharks

Dorsal fin with a notch between unsegmented and segmented rays, the length of the 1st and usually several subsequent unsegmented rays exceeds the height of the body, their ends, especially of the 1st ray, are not connected by a membrane. The first two rays of the anal fin in males do not have aciniform outgrowths. The pectoral fins usually reach the beginning of the anal fin, sometimes extending beyond it, between the base of their upper edge and the posterior edge of the bones of the humeral girdle there is a rounded membrane. The groove above the upper lip is short.

The profile of the head of the sea dog-butterfly in front and behind the eyes is rounded, in the form of a steep arc. On the upper jaw there are 33-45, on the lower 32-41 teeth, the last of them on each side in both jaws in the form of strong curved canines, the mandibular canines are somewhat larger and located somewhat in front of the maxillary.

The lateral line consists of short, spaced segments that sometimes open in front and behind, there is no continuous channel. There are 9 pores in the infraorbital canal.

Color

Gray, with several transverse brownish stripes on the sides of the body, narrower than the spaces between them. The anterior part of the dorsal fin between the 5th and 8th and 9th rays with a large round spot surrounded by a white ring. The lower body is yellowish.

Length

Up to 17-18 cm.

Area

Mediterranean Sea from the eastern (Israel) to the western (Iberian, Algerian) coasts and adjacent parts of the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco (Rabat) to the southern coast of Great Britain. Sea of Marmara and Bosphorus. In the Black Sea, one specimen was found near Sevastopol (October 1, 1904).

Biology

Lives at a depth of 10 or 30 to 100 m, on solid ground. It dwells on the ground made of broken shells or where there are thickets of lithotamnion algae, it also occurs on the sandy bottom, where it finds refuge in empty shell mollusks and discarded cans, shoes, bones. In the Mediterranean Sea, it lives among algae.

Nutrition

It feeds on small crustaceans, molluscs, less often small fish, algae.

The butterfly dog breeds in April (off the coast of France) or in July (off the coast of England). Eggs (1.12-1.20 mm in diameter) are laid in empty shells or other objects and in small holes in stones. Males guard the eggs; After hatching, the larvae remain in plankton for some time.

Economic value

It has no economic value. Fish meat is tasteless and little used for food.

Literature:

1. N. Svetovidov. Fish of the Black Sea. Moscow-Leningrad, 1965

2. Wheeler A. Keys to fish of sea and fresh waters of the North European basin. Per. from English. Preface and comments. V. P. Serebryakova. - M.: Light and food industry, 1982. - 432 p., Ill.

3. Vasilyeva E. D. Fish of the Black Sea. Keys to marine, brackish, euryhaline and anadromous species with color illustrations collected by S. V. Bogorodsky. - M.: Publishing house VNIRO, 2007