Species: Synodus intermedius, Sand Diver, Sand Diver Lizardfish

Synodus intermedius (Agassiz, 1829)

Sand Diver, Sand Diver Lizardfish

Body relatively robust; snout long, pointed, triangular when viewed from above, longer than eye; eye relatively small (17.2% headlength); width between eyes 15.9% head; flap on front nostril wide & short (2.4 (1.5-3.6%) headlength), not tapering, not extending past rear nostril when depressed; mouth large, extending well past eye; lower jaw rounded at front, without fleshy knob at tip;many rows of fine pointed teeth on jaws, tongue and (in 1 band) on side of roof of mouth; fins without spines; one dorsal fin in mid-body, with a small skin-flap fin behind it above anal fin; dorsal fin 11-12, fairly low, front rays of fin don’t extend beyond back rays when fin is laid down; anal 11, length of anal fin base < than dorsal fin base; pectoral fin 11-13; pelvics on abdomen behind pectoral base, 8 rays, inner rays distinctly longer than outer rays; 51(49-55) scales on lateral line; scales before dorsal fin 16-17; scales between the lateral line and dorsal fin base 3.5; bases of short rays at top and bottom of tail fin completely scaleless.

Body with 9-13 brown bars that join a series of diamond shaped blotches along mid-side, short bars alternating with long bars that reach up to the top of the back, last bar is an inverted Y; often thin gold &/or blue lines along upper body; black blotch on shoulder at top corner of gill cover rectangular, relatively small (8.4 (5.1-12.2)% head); a broken white stripe along the lower flank under the dark diamonds; pelvic fins golden yellow, with darker pigment between rays; anal fin yellow; tail fin with 3-5 dark bars across both lobes of fin.

Size: 44 cm.

Habitat: shallow sand & mud bottoms; off beaches and in high salinity lagoons and creeks.

Depth: 1-320 m.

North Carolina to S Brazil.