Species: Malacoctenus delalandii, Delaland Blenny

Malacoctenus delalandii (Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1836)

Delaland Blenny

Head slender, snout pointed; <6 cirri over both nostrils, 12-18 cirri on each side of nape, usually >2 cirri over each eye; upper part of rear end of top jaw covered by bone under eye; no small teeth behind outer row of large teeth on upper jaws; no teeth on sides of roof of mouth; notch between spines and rays of dorsal fin, usually XX (rarely XIX or XXI), 9-12; anal rays II, 17-21; pectoral rays 14-15 (rarely 13); pelvic fins with I (internal), 3, last ray difficult to see, its length 1/2-1/3 length of 2nd ray, inserted before pectoral base; all fin rays unbranched; 48-62 lateral line scales; no scales on pectoral fin base or along center of nape; breast fully scaled in male, usually naked in female; lateral line tubes or canals at least on front of body; smooth scales on rear of body.

Grey-brown in male, greenish-brown in female, darker above; a series of 5 dark bars from top to bottom of body between front 1/3 of dorsal fin and end of tail base, extending to edge of dorsal fin; sometimes a broad dark stripe from eye to end of tail base; dorsal fin with dark bars and whitish interspaces; male with an often indistinct vertically oval ocellus on lower edge of operculum, rest of head mottled with green-brown; tail fin sometimes with vertical narrow bars, anal fin with narrow diagonal bars.

Reaches 8.2 cm.

Shallow sheltered rocky reef, rubble and algae, also seagrass beds in turbid water situations.

Depth range: 0-3 m.

Central Caribbean to Brazil.