The objective of this work was to establish main morphological traits of the Atlantic lizardfish Synodus saurus in the Southern Mediterranean Sea (Benghazi, eastern Libya). Seventy fish random sample obtained from the artisanal catch of Benghazi was used to establish 5 morphogenic (descriptive), 15 morphometric, and 6 meristic traits. The fish was elongated, somewhat cylindrical, with hazy transverse rows in some. The snout was pointed, and the jaws had rows of fine teeth. The mean total length of the fish (TL) was 20.14 cm corresponding to a mean total weight (TW) of 66.93 gm. The ratio of head length to TL was 0.223. All the binary correlations between the morphometric parameters were positive and highly significant. The regressions of these parameters with TL were positive (i.e. all the parameters increase simultaneously during growth), highly significant, and mostly with high R2. The length-weight relationship, TW = 0.0053*TL**3.1109, n = 70, R2 = .965, P = .000, indicated isometric growth (conf. limits of b = ± 0.1411). The Fulton condition factor (CF) was 0.7443. The regression of CF vs TL indicated gradual improvement of the condition of the fish during growth (i.e. gradual increase of CF with increase of TL as indicator of growth), the slope (b) of the power regression was + 0.1110. The meristic traits were conservative, i.e. either did not correlate with TL, or had low “r” (in case of number of lateral line scales). The meristic formula derived from them was: D, 11-12(12); A, 9-12(11); P, 11–13(12); V, 7-8(8); LLS, 53-73(62); ALS, 5-10(7); BLS, 7-14(10); the values between parenthesis are the modes.
Keywords: Atlantic lizardfish, Condition Factor, Length-Weight Relationship, Meristic formula, Synodus saurus, southern Mediterranean Sea
