Varicus Robins & Böhlke, 1961

Genus Varicus Robins & Böhlke, 1961 View in CoL

Varicus is a genus inhabiting deep-shelf environments in the tropical West Atlantic mostly at depths of 100 m to 300 m, where they are usually benthic and solitary ( Tornabene et al., 2016). In a recent article, Fuentes et al. (2023) described two new deep-water species of Varicus , bringing the count to 12 species. Otoliths are known from only three of those: Varicus decorum ( Fig. 35a View Fig ), V. veliguttatus

( Fig. 35b View Fig ), and V. cephalocellatus ( Fig. 35c View Fig ). Te otoliths show a parallelogram-like shape, as is also typical for many Atlanto-Mediterranean goby otoliths, with a relatively short sulcus. Te expression of the ostial lobe appears to be highly variable and could represent an important characteristic for differentiation of species in this genus.