First record of Baillon's wrasse Symphodus bailloni (Labridae) in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria

Abstract

On 29 May 2022, two specimens of Baillon's wrasse, Symphodus bailloni (Valenciennes, 1839) were captured from the coast of Syria (eastern Mediterranean Sea). Sampled two specimens of S. bailloni were measured at 117 and120 mm in TL and weighed 25.7 and 23.2 g. These findings is the first records of this species in the Levant Basin, and the easternmost extension range of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. Symphodus bailloni is not a herculean or Lessepsian migrant but should be considered as a permanent resident of the Mediterranean basin despite the fact not largely distributed.

Full text

Accepted: 14 November 2022; Published: 08 December 2022
FishTaxa (2022) 25: 26-30
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Short Note
First record of Baillon’s wrasse Symphodus bailloni (Labridae) in the Eastern
Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria
Lana Khrema ,1, Adib Saad ,1,*, Amina Alnesser ,1, Christian Capapé ,2
1Marine Sciences Laboratory, Faculty of Agriculture, Tishreen University, P.O. Box 1408, Lattakia, Syria.
2Laboratoire d’Ichtyologie, case 104, Université de Montpellier, 34 095 Montpellier cedex 5, France.
Corresponding author: *E-mail: adibsaad52@gmail.com
Abstract
On 29 May 2022, two specimens of Baillon’s wrasse, Symphodus bailloni (Valenciennes, 1839) were captured from the coast of Syria
(eastern Mediterranean Sea). Sampled two specimens of S. bailloni were measured at 117 and120 mm in TL and weighed 25.7 and 23.2
g. These findings is the first records of this species in the Levant Basin, and the easternmost extension range of the species in the
Mediterranean Sea. Symphodus bailloni is not a herculean or Lessepsian migrant but should be considered as a permanent resident of the
Mediterranean basin despite the fact not largely distributed.
Keywords: Labridae, Symphodus bailloni, first records, distribution, extension range; Levant Basin.
Citation: Khrema L., Saad A., Alnesser A., Capapé C. 2022. First record of Baillon’s wrasse Symphodus bailloni (Labridae) in the Eastern
Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria. FishTaxa 25: 26-30.
Introduction
Genus Symphodus Rafinesque, 1810 following Parenti and Randall (2018), has 10 species, of which four species
of them viz, grey wrasse, S. cinereus (Bonnaterre, 1788), axillary wrasse, S. mediterraneus (Linnaeus, 1758),
five-spotted wrasse, S. roissali (Risso, 1810) and peacock wrasse, S. tinca (Linnaeus, 1758) have been recorded
in the Syrian marine waters (Saad 2005; Ali 2018). These species inhabit areas with plentiful weeds or around
rocks at depths of 1-50 m (Pollard 2010). Routine monitoring regularly conducted throughout the Syrian coast
for two decades (Saad 2005; Ali 2018), with the assistance of experienced fishermen and divers, allowed us to
collect two specimens of Baillon’s wrasse, S. bailloni (Valenciennes, 1839), which are described in the present
paper with comments on their distribution in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria.
Material and Methods
Two specimens of S. bailloni were caught on 29 May 2022, off Banias city, 35°7'17.0.5" N and 35°54'14.73" E
(Fig. 1). The specimens were caught by a diver using a spearfish that caused spear holes just below the middle
of the dorsal fin and behind the head in the first specimen (Fig. 2A) and at the anterior part of the dorsal fin until
the base of the pelvic fin in the second specimen (Fig. 2B). Their morphometric measurements were measured
to the nearest millimeter and weighed to the nearest gram (Table 1). The specimens were preserved in 10%
buffered formalin and deposited in the Ichthyological Collection of the Marine Sciences Laboratory, Faculty of
Agriculture, Tishreen University (References No: MSL 9/2022 and No MSL 10/2022). Identification of
specimens was made according to Whitehead et al. (1986), Eschmeyer et al. (2016) and Froese and Pauly (2017).
Results and Discussion
The specimen of MSL 9/2022 had TL of 117 mm and 25.7 g, and MSL 10/2022, 120 mm TL and weighed 23.2
g. Both specimens were identified as S. bailloni based on the combination of main morphological
characters such as body with ovate shape, laterally flattened, head pointed, head length equal to or shorter than

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Khrema et al. - First record of Symphodus bailloni in coast of Syria
body depth, snout protrusible with numerous cephalic pores, lips with five folds, upper lip highly developed,
jutting well forward from the lower lip, pre-orbital shorter than post orbital, and 12 gill rakers on the first
branchial arch (Fig. 3) The colour of the body is greenish reddish, with longitudinal dark-brown stripes on the
middle upper part of the flanks; no dark spot on the caudal peduncle; two dark spots on the dorsal fin, the first,
more important, at the beginning of the soft part of the fin; the second less important, at the end of the soft part
of the same fin; head with brown-green orange stripes (Fig. 4). General morphology, morphometric
measurements, meristic counts, and colour of these specimens are in agreement with Quignard and Pras (1986),
Dunn and Brown (2003), and Göktürk et al. (2012).
Figure 1. Map of the Syrian coast indicating the
capture site of both specimens of Symphodus
bailloni (red star).
Figure 2. Symphodus bailloni. A. Specimen reference No: MSL 9/2022, scale bar = 20 mm. B. Specimen reference No: MSL 10/2022 (scale
bar = 20 mm).

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FISHTAXA (2022) 25: 26-30
Symphodus bailloni is reported along the eastern Atlantic from the North Sea to Portugal south and the Straits
of Gibraltar. The species is also known in Morocco and Mauritania (Quignard and Pras 1986). Symphodus
bailloni occurs in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Spain, and in the waters surrounding the Balearic
Islands (Quignard and Pras 1986). Additionally, the species is only recorded off the Turkish coast of the Black
Sea as reported by Göktürk et al. (2012), where it was caught in abundance and considered a resident population
established. Migrations from the Black Sea to the Syrian coasts remain a viable hypothesis that cannot be
completely ruled out, though more evidence is required. Symphodus bailloni is not recorded off the
Mediterranean coast of Egypt (El Sayed et al. 2017) and the present findings constitute the first records of
S. bailloni in the Levant Basin, where previous papers did not report the species (Golani 2005; Bariche and
Fricke 2020). They are also the easternmost extension of the species in the Mediterranean Sea.
The origin of S. bailloni in the Mediterranean Sea remains difficult to elucidate. However, a Herculean
migration (sensu Quignard and Tomasini 2000) or a Lessepsian migration (sensu Por 1971) cannot be
considered. A recent revision of the exotic fishes in the Mediterranean Sea does not include S. bailloni (see
Golani et al. 2021).
Table 1. Morphometric measurements with percentages of total length (% TL) and meristic counts of Symphodus bailloni collected off the
Syrian coast.
Specimens
MSL 9/2022
MSL 10/2022
Morphometric measurements
mm
% TL
mm
% TL
Total length
117
100
120
100
Standard length
93
79.5
96
80.0
Body depth
40
34.1
38
31.6
Head length
36
30.7
34
28.3
Eye diameter
6
5.1
6
5.0
Dorsal fin base length
50
42.7
52
43.3
Anal fin base length
25
21.3
25
20.8
Pectoral fin base length
9
7.6
9
7.5
Pelvic fin base length
7
5.9
6
5.0
Caudal fin base length
23
19.6
23
19.1
Anal fin height length
14
11.9
14
11.6
Pectoral fin length
18
15.3
18
15.0
Pelvic fin height length
15
12.8
15
12.5
Pre-dorsal length
31
26.4
29
24.2
Pre-pectoral length
31
26.4
31
25.8
Pre-pelvic length
37
31.6
36
30.0
Pre-anal length
60
51.2
61
50.8
Counts
Dorsal fin spines
XV
XV
Dorsal fin soft rays
9
9
Anal fin spines
III
III
Anal fin soft rays
9
9
Pectoral fin spines
-
-
Pectoral fin soft rays
13
13
Pelvic fin spines
I
I
Pelvic fin soft rays
5
5

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Khrema et al. - First record of Symphodus bailloni in coast of Syria
In conclusion, in this study, it was reported that two specimens of S. bailloni were found on the Eastern
Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria. This report appears to be the first record of this species on the coast of the
Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
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Figure 3. Head of Symphodus bailloni, 1. The upper lip is highly
developed, and 2. Stripes (Scale bar = 5 mm).
Figure 4. Symphodus bailloni, Gillrakers on the first gill arch (Scale
bar = 2 mm).

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