The first confirmed record of Pomatoschistus marmoratus (Risso, 1810) (Actinopterygii: Gobiiformes: Gobiidae) from Malta

Abstract

The family Gobiidae is the species richest family of fishes in the Mediterranean. The marbled goby, pomatoschistus marmoratus, is a widespread gobiid species with a distribution from the south of Portugal in the eastern Atlantic, along the northern Mediterranean coast to the Black and Azov Seas. It inhabits sandy, inshore, shallow waters and sometimes brackish and hypersaline waters. It was also recorded south of the Aegean Sea along the Levant coast to the Suez Canal in Egypt. Along the southern Mediterranean coast between the Alboran Sea and Suez Canal in Egypt, the species was only confirmed from northern and southern Tunisia. The aim of the present paper is to report the confirmed presence of P. marmoratus from Malta, expanding the known species distribution.