The banded dragonet (''Callionymus fasciatus'') is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of dragonet native to the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

from the

Gulf of Genoa The Gulf of Genoa (''Golfo di Genova'') is the northernmost part of the Ligurian Sea. This Italian gulf is about wide from the city of Imperia in the west to La Spezia in the east. The largest city on its coast is Genoa, which has an important p ...

to the western

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

. Also known from the southern and eastern

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

. It prefers sandy substrates where its diet consists of

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

. Its body is scaleless, elongated and tapers posteriorly, it has a triangular head with a short snout which is shorter than the diameter of the eye and a terminal, protractile mouth. The oval eyes are placed at the top of the head and have a diameter about one third of the length of the head. The operculum is connected directly to the body and the preopercular spine is enlarged and the other spines in the preoperculum face forwards and upwards and have robust bases. The gill opening is much reduced, forming pores which are positioned dorsally. The first

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

is tall and rectangular in shape with has 4 spiny rays, the first of which is higher than the others. The second dorsal has 10 branched soft rays, with the last split at its base is veil-like. The

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

is directly beneath the second dorsal fin and is of equal length but is not as tall. The

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s are rounded and broad. The ventral fins are well developed with terminally branched rays. The

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

is very wide and fan-like. The colour of the body varies from olive-green to reddish, with 5-7 dark brown saddle-like blotches across its back. This species is sexually dimorphic and, in males, the second dorsal fin has vertical rows of dark spots placed in a pattern which form diagonal rows. It reaches a maximum length of for males and for females. The banded dragonet occurs over sandy and muddy substrate ate depths ranging from to , although it has been reported from as deep as . It is a territorial species and the territory is aggressively defended. This species feeds on small invertebrates, especially

annelid The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecol ...

s and

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s. In the Sea of Marmara its preferred substrate consists of fragmented shells and sand.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q8255644 F Fish of Europe Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish of the Black Sea Fish described in 1837 Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes it:Callionymus maculatus sv:Callionymus maculatus