Emblemaria atlantica

Species infomation

Distinctive features:

1. White and black stripy cirri.
2. Head often densely speckled with black and white dots.

Physical description:

Simple eye and nasal cirri.
Males: orbital cirri up to 3x as long as the eye diameter. Spiny dorsal elevated - ~2x height of soft dorsal.

Colouration:

Cirri striped black and white. Colour ranges from a lighter brown to a more ruddy brown. Head densely speckled with white and dark-brown/black spots. Body flecked with dark brown spots. ~8 pale brown blotches which start only reaching midflank but soon reach lower body. Blotches meeting lower body are separated by dark brown bars. Spiny dorsal fin a greenish-brown with a row of alternating pale brown and black blotches along the base. Even rows of vertically alternating black and white dots on dorsal fin.

Size:

Reaches 7.5 cm.

Habitat:

Found in bottoms with rubble around reefs.

Notes:

Found in depths greater than 30 m in the continent, but in the intertidal area off-coast at Bermuda.