IWAMOTO & WIRTZ: SYNOPSIS OF EASTERN ATLANTIC SERRANUS 
29 
Body fully covered with small ctenoid scales except on chest where scales cycloid; naked 
areas on head include snout, infraorbital bones, lower jaws, gular and branchiostegal membranes, 
and top of head posteriorly to beginning of nape; all opercular bones, pectoral-fin base, and chest 
scaled. Branchiostegal membrane and maxilla partially scaled in some specimens. 
Color of live specimens (Figs. 23, 24): Head with vermiform to reticulate pattern of light and 
dark lines; body with two to five broad to narrow brown to black bands that extend onto dorsal fin; 
the pattern with two broad dark bands appears to be typical in the eastern Atlantic and parts of the 
southwestern Mediterranean, the pattern with more, and often paired, narrower bands typical in 
the Mediterranean; the last band, caudal peduncle, and caudal fin often orange or yellow; tips of 
dorsal spines reddish-brown to scarlet; often a large bright-blue spot on sides of belly. 
Color of preserved specimen: Dark brownish overall, underside of head and chest paler, 
dorsal surfaces of head and all of nape dark, a horizontal dark stripe running from tip of upper jaw 
onto snout, through middle of eye onto dorsal margin of preopercle and opercle; a broad dark band 
below 5 th to 9 th dorsal spines; a darker band from base of 3 rd dorsal soft ray to end of dorsal fin, 
narrowing ventrally and terminating at posterior half of anal-fin base onto anterior one-third or so 
of caudal peduncle. Head with irregular pale reticulate lines; upper jaw with blackish tip and series 
of four or more dark bands on maxillary; lower lip marked with dark bands; mandibular ramus with 
bold dark spots. Dorsal fin generally dark above the two broad body bands, the distal margin of 
soft dorsal fin with irregular speckling of small clear spots arranged in vertical to diagonal lines; 
anal fin with prominent sharp stripes distally; caudal fin relatively pale and lacking prominent 
markings; pectoral fin dusky with paler outer margins; pelvic fin blackish. 
Size: To 36 cm TL. 
Habitat and distribution.— Over rocky bottoms from the shore to 150 m. Known from the 
Bay of Biscay to Senegal, including the Canary Islands but not the Azores, Madeira and the Cape 
Verde Islands; also in the Mediterranean and Black seas. 
Specimens examined (9 spec.). — France: CAS 238841 (ex. IU 7078) (3, 90.5-139 mm SL); 
Paris Market; collector D.S. Jordan. Italy: CAS 238072 (1, 131 mm SL); Mediterranean; Sicily; 
collector P. Doderlein, 1886. CAS-SU 20897 (2, 90.5-143.5 mm SL); Mediterranean; Naples; 
collector E.C. Starks. Mauritania: CAS 235486 (1, 161 mm SL); 18°36.93N, 16°36.9'W; 30 m; 
R/V Dr Fridtjof Nansen CCLME Survey 2012, sta. 139, 3 June 2012. Senegal: CAS 15905 
(2, 174-187 mm SL); Dakar; collector A.I. Good, 10 Nov. 1938. 
Figure 25. Chelidoperca africana. A specimen 15 cm TL, taken off the Ivory Coast in 150 m depth. Photograph by 
Oddgeir Alvheim. 
