Common names: English: Kestrel goby
German: Falken-Grundel

Synonyms: none.

Length: 6.4 cm.

Colouration
Body with orange-beige, dark brown, or pale background. Flank with seven orange blotches. Head orange to dark brown with white spots on cheek and opercle. Darke orange line at eye level, above pre-opercle and opercle continuing on snout from eye to lip. Orange blotch at upper pectoral base.

Description
Body moderately elongate, rounded anteriorly and laterally compressed posteriorly; interorbital space very narrow. Eyes large. Snout shorter than eye and rounded from dorsal view. Anterior nostrils tubular with triangular process.
50-51 scales in lateral series.
Fins: D1 VI; D2 I/14; A I/13; P 18-19.

Food
No informations, probably carnivorous.

Reproduction
No informations.

Habitat
50 - 105 m depth on coralline algae sea bed. Rare.

Drawing: © Samuel P. Iglésias
Adult male

Distribution
Mediterranean: Menorca, Golf of Lion, Corsica.

Literature on Gobius xoriguer

Iglésias S.P., Vukic J., Sellos D.Y., Soukupová T. & Sanda R., 2021: Gobius xoriguer, a new offshore Mediterranean goby (Gobiidae), and phylogenetic relationships within the genus Gobius. Ichthyol. Res. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-020-00797-9.

Photographs of Gobius xoriguer

Gobius xoriguer Holotype. Adult male. Freshly collected specimen Photograph: © Samuel P. Iglésias	Gobius xoriguer Paratype. Adult male. Freshly collected specimen Photograph: © Samuel P. Iglésias

Drawing of Gobius xoriguer