Species: Lipogramma schrieri, Maori Basslet

Lipogramma schrieri Baldwin, Nonaka & Robertson, 2018

Maori Basslet

Elongate, compressed body; eye large; snout short; mouth opens at front; teeth on jaws, and front and sides of roof of mouth; preopercle edge smooth; opercle with a flat projection; gill rakers long 11-13 (3-4 + 8-9); dorsal fin XII, 9; anal fin III, 8; pectorals rounded, 16-17; pelvics I, 5, with 1st ray elongated, reaching past anal fin base; tail fin slightly forked, with rounded tips; short rays on upper and lower base of tail fin thick and spiny, 4 on top of tail; no lateral line; ~25-27 lateral scales.

Ground color light brown; head with top midline with irregular, blue-white tattoo-like markings from lower lip to nape; a dark brown bar from eye to lower jaw, this bordered on either side by thin whitish bar; body with 7-8 narrow, dark-brown bars, those narrower than paler interspaces; dorsal fin: spinous dorsal and front of soft dorsal blue-grey with stripes comprising short yellow bars proximally and yellow spots distally; rear of soft dorsal with large black ocellus ringed in blue-white that extends onto body, several rows of yellow spots above ocellus; anal fin blue-grey, with yellow markings similar to those on spinous dorsal fin; tail fin yellow, with vertical bars composed of lines of blue-grey spots, a wide, blue-grey margin distally; pectorals translucent, base dark; pelvics blue-grey to bright blue with yellow-ringed dark spots. Juveniles: smallest fish lack body bars,with row of four large, irregular white blotches on or just below lateral midline of trunk, smaller white spots along back above that row, white spot at rear base of anal fin, two large, roughly triangular white blotches on caudal-fin base; medium sized juveniles with front four dark trunk bars, smaller white markings; large juveniles with all trunk bars present, and remnants of each white caudal-fin blotch present as small white spot before indistinct pale vertical bar.

Reaches 7.9 cm.

Lives on deep reefs.

Depth range: 141-207 m.

The Gulf of Mexico to the southern Caribbean.