Common name: Lined seahorse
Hippocampus erectus Perry, 1810: unnumbered p. 177, Pl. 45 (orig. descr.; American seas, coast adjacent to Mexico and West Indies; no type specimen); Lourie et al. 1999 (redescription; distribution); Woodall et al. 2009 (new distribution).
Hippocampus hudsonius DeKay, 1842: 322, Pl 53, Fig. 171 (orig. descr.; Hudson River, New York; no type specimen).
Hippocampus punctulatus Guichenot, 1853: 174, Pl. 5, Fig. 2 (orig. descr.; Cuba; syntypes MNHN 6092); Duméril, 1870: 40 (redescription of syntypes).
Hippocampus guttulatus Günther, 1876: 202 (in part, Caribbean).
Hippocampus villosus Günther, 1880: 8, Pl. 1, Fig. D (orig. descr.; off Bahia, Brazil; holotype BMNH 1879.5.14.464); Lourie et al.; 1999: 91; Kuiter, 2009: 82 (Valid as Hippocampus villosus Günther 1880).
Diagnosis. (Proportions and meristic data of 85 specimens, 59–120 mm in height.) Rings 11 + 31–35; dorsal-fin rays 17–19 on 2 + 1 rings; anal-fin rays 4; pectoral-fin rays 14–18. HL/SnL 2.5–3.2. Coronet well-developed, CI 3–4; small to large spines or absent; on head, principally on sphenotic with single spine on each side of head; frontal with bifurcate or simple spine, very evident over each eye, and one central, horn-like spine at junction with coronet; spines on body and tail distributed regularly on rings.
Coloration. In preservative without defined pattern, often with irregular, white dorsal stripes that extend laterally on body and tail, parallel to rings. Finer white lines that run down the neck laterally may cross the rings. In life color varied: beige, yellow, light orange, dark orange and reddish brown; dorsal fin pigmented between and on rays, showing sub-marginal dark band from first to last ray, with edges free of pigmentation (Figure 2 A).
Habitat. Shallow waters to 73 m in depth. Found on marine algae, mainly floating Sargassum sp., sponges and artificial substrates such as moorings, anchoring boats and pieces of fishing nets.
FIGURE 1. Morphotypes identification by Canonical Discriminant Functions (Wilks’ Lambda, 1 st canonical function = 0.028, p = 0.00; 2 nd canonical function = 0.412, p = 0.00).
Distribution. Americas, Western Atlantic: Canada (Nova Scotia), USA, Bermuda, Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Caribbean, Leeward Islands, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil (Vari, 1982; Lourie et al., 1999; Piacentino, 2008; Boehm et al., 2013; present study). Europa, Eastern Atlantic: Portugal, Azores Archipelago (Woodal et al., 2009).