Abstract
INCREASING use of the aqualung by zoologists has led to the exploration of sublittoral areas the topography of which had previously excluded investigation by the conventional methods of trawling and dredging. One of the more sensational discoveries on British coasts has been that of the leopard spotted goby by Mr. G. B. Forster of the Plymouth Laboratory. This was a species new to the British fauna, and regarded by Corbin1 as also new to science, being described in Nature under the name of Gobius forsteri (Teleostei-Percomorphi). In addition to southern Cornwall and Devon, records were given for St. Helier (Channel Islands) and Santander (Spain). Recent work2 has suggested that the goby may be identical with Gobius thori De Buen3, a species founded on one specimen from the Aegean Sea collected as long ago as 1910. Further examples from the Mediterranean area are needed to settle this question, but in the meantime it is of interest to record G. forsteri from two new localities, extending the known northern limit of distribution by more than 250 miles. These are Dale, Pembrokeshire, and Port Erin, Isle of Man.
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HARTNOLL, R., MILLER, P. New Records of Gobius forsteri. Nature 194, 1295 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/1941295a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1941295a0
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