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Author: Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810

Chlopsis bicolor Rafinesque-Schmaltz, 1810

Diagnosis: body greatly elongate, head and trunk nearly twice in tail. Snout broadly rounded, slightly projecting beyond tip of lower jaw. Anterior nostril tubular, near tip of snout; posterior nostril an oval pore with a flap on outside of upper lip, below and before front eye margin. Teeth on premaxillae in a round patch, the strongest teeth posteriorly; vomerine teeth broad and strong, in two lines at either edge of vomer and in continuation of premaxillary patch; maxillary teeth multiserial, innermost longest and sharpest; dentary teeth biserial anteriorly, uniserial posteriorly. Gill opening round, very restricted, a fold of skin on its upper margin forming a sort of hood over opening. Dorsal and anal fins confluent with caudal fin. Lateral line with only a true pore on either side of branchial region and a series of very small low papillae along the course of body; no supra-temporal pore. Vertebrae: total 127-136; abdominal 44-49. Colour: body bicoloured (dark brown dorsally and creamy white ventrally) as far as a point somewhat behind middle of anal fin. Size: to 42 cm.

Habitat: benthic on shelf and upper slope, down to 350 m, burrowing on muddy bottoms. Food: no data. Reproduction: very few data; eggs and leptocephali known.

Distribution: Atlantic coast of Morocco, also Mediterranean. Elsewhere, southward to Mauritania, also western Atlantic (Gulf of Mexico and off southern Brazil).

Eggs, larvae and young stages. Strömman, 1896: 39, pl. 5 (fig. 5-6) | Sanzo, 1905: 315 | Schmidt, 1912b: 338; 1912e: 53, 1 fig. | Grassi, 1912: 17, 1 fig.; 1913: 130, pl. 7 (fig. 31-39), pl. 10 (fig. 22), pl. 14 (fig. 3-5);1915: 702 | Bertin, 1926: tab. 6 | Fish, 1927: 307 | Ancona, 1931:115, fig. 86-91 | Sparta, 1939a: 3, fig. 1-10 | Orton, 1964: 438 | Smith, 1969: 390.
Otoliths (sagitta). No data.

Bicoloured false moray (Chlopsis bicolor)