Species: Symphurus minor, Largescale Tonguefish

Symphurus minor Ginsburg, 1951

Largescale Tonguefish

Body highly compressed, elongate, oval, tapers to pointed tail, relatively wide; head shorter than wide; small, close-set eyes on left side, lower eye relatively large; well-developed cover for pupils; snout rounded; mouth small, curved, strongly so on blind side, extends to below front edge of lower eye; lower jaw without fleshy crest on eye-side; teeth cover all of eye side lower jaw and front 1/2-2/3 of upper jaw; preopercle edge covered with skin; dorsal fin origin ~ above upper eye, 69-81 rays; anal 54-64 rays; membrane at base of most of dorsal fin rays and all of anal fin rays with a hole; pectoral fins absent, represented by a fine membrane; only left pelvic fin present, 4 rays, on body midline, joined to anal fin by delicate membrane; dorsal and anal fins confluent with the pointed caudal fin; tail usually 10 rays; scales rough, on both sides of body; no scales on blind side of dorsal and anal fins; 56-67 lateral scales; no lateral line.

Top side pale brown, with irregular dark marks; a well developed dark brown blotch a little before tail fin base; blind side uniformly white to yellowish, without dark dots; dorsal and anal pale at front, shading to dark at rear; base of tail fin dark; lining of gut cavity pale.

Size: 8.5 cm.

Habitat: sand bottoms with a lot of live growth; estuaries.

Depth: 18-170 m.

North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico.