| Main Ref. | Lourie, S.A., A.C.J. Vincent and H.J. Hall, 1999 |
| Appearance refers to | |
| Bones in OsteoBase |
| Specialized organs | other |
| Different appearance | always different morphology between mature adults |
| Different colors | |
| Remarks | Males with brood pouch; females with ovipositor (Ref. 205). |
| Striking features | |
| Body shape lateral | other |
| Cross section | |
| Dorsal head profile | |
| Type of eyes | |
| Type of mouth/snout | |
| Position of mouth | |
| Type of scales | |
| Diagnosis |
Description (based on 35 specimens): Adult height: 7.0-13.0cm. Rings: 11 + 37 (35-38). Snout length: 3.0 (2.8-3.4) in head length. Dorsal fin rays: 17 (16-19) covering 2+1 rings. Pectoral fin rays: 14 (13-15). Coronet: narrow, ridge-like and joined smoothly to nape of neck, or wedge-shaped (front narrow, back high and broad); some specimens with very large angular coronet (especially specimens from West Africa). Spines: low, very low in adults. Other distinctive characters: very short snout (usually less than 1/3 head length) that is slightly upward-bent; prominent eye spine. Color pattern: mottled brown to yellow, to maroon and rust (Refs. 52034, 89230); also orange, purple or black; sometimes with tiny white dots, but these do not coalesce into thick horizontal wavy lines as in H. guttulatus. |
| Ease of Identification |
| Lateral Lines | Interrupted: No |
| Scales on lateral line | |
| Pored lateral line scales | |
| Scales in lateral series | |
| Scale rows above lateral line | |
| Scale rows below lateral line | |
| Scales around caudal peduncle | |
| Barbels | |
| Gill clefts (sharks/rays only) | |
| Gill rakers | |
| on lower limb | |
| on upper limb | |
| total | |
| Vertebrae | |
| preanal | |
| total |
| Attributes | |
| Fins number | 1 |
| Finlets No. | Dorsal 0 - 0 |
| Ventral 0 - 0 | |
| Spines total | 0 - 0 |
| Soft-rays total | 16 - 19 |
| Adipose fin | absent |
| Attributes | other (see remark) |
| Fins number | 1 |
| Spines total | |
| Soft-rays total |
| Pectoral | Attributes used for locomotion |
| Spines 0 | |
| Soft-rays 13 - 15 | |
| Pelvics | Attributes suppressed/absent |
| Position absent | |
| Spines | |
| Soft-rays |