Coryphopterus personatus

Coryphopterus personatus
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Gobiiformes
Family:	Gobiidae
Genus:	Coryphopterus
Species:	C. personatus
Binomial name
Coryphopterus personatus (D. S. Jordan & J. C. Thompson, 1905)
Synonyms
Eviota personataJordan & Thompson, 1905

Coryphopterus personatus, commonly referred to as the masked goby, is a marine species of goby found in the western-central Atlantic Ocean. ^[2]

C. personatus is a cryptobenthic species, living in caves and shaded areas near the sea floor in reef communities. Masked gobies are sequential hermaphrodites and are capable of changing sexes. ^[3]

Description

This species reaches a maximum length of 4.0 cm (1.6 in). ^[4] This species is difficult to differentiate from the closely related C. hyalinus. C. personatus has a dark "mask" on its face, a faint dusky stripe on the lower rear margin of the body, and a translucent patch on the center of the top of its head. C. personatus is also slightly larger than C. hyalinus, which only reaches 3 cm (1.2 in). ^[5]

References

1. Pezold, F., van Tassell, J., Aiken, K.A., Tornabene, L. & Bouchereau, J.-L. (2015). "Coryphopterus personatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2015: e.T185960A1794928. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T185960A1794928.en . Retrieved 27 January 2024.
2. Robins, C.R. and G.C. Ray, 1986. A field guide to Atlantic coast fishes of North America. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, U.S.A. 354 p
3. Allsop, David; West, Stuart (2004). "Sex allocation in the sex-changing marine goby, Coryphopterus personatus, on atoll-fringing reefs". Evolutionary Ecology Research. 6: 843–855.
4. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Coryphopterus personatus". FishBase . June 2013 version.
5. "Coryphopterus personatus". Reef Life Survey | Reef Species of the World. Retrieved 2024-06-02.