This illustration by Dawson 1982 of the holotype of the Wide-body Pipefish shows a moderate length of the snout. However, the South Australia Wide-body Pipefish has a similar snout to the Spotted Pipefish.

a) Southern Gulf Pipefish.

b) South Australian Wide-body Pipefish.

c) Wide-body Pipefish (Dawson 1982).

d) Spotted Pipefish

BELOW: The meristics and possible taxon of the Spotted pipefish group.  There appears to be the possibility of new taxon in the Spotted Pipefish complex with only two described species, the Australian Spotted Pipefish S. argus and the New Zealand Smooth Pipefish S. macropterygia (Dawson 1982). SDTrR =sub-dorsal trunk rings, SDTaR = sub-dorsal tail rings, SDR = total sub-dorsal rings.

RIGHT The map shows the range in southern Australia of the different currently known members of the Spotted Pipefish complex. The map also shows the CONCOM (Second Council of Conservation Ministers Technical Workshop, 1985) biogeographical regions for southern Australia.

DISTRIBUTION:

In South Australia the Spotted pipefish is widely distributed, with high populations at ideal sites and with scattered vagrants in less optimal sites. Studies of ten moderately surveyed inshore sites show the Spotted Pipefish common at only one. However, Spotted pipefish were found at six of the ten sites in small numbers. The Spotted pipefish is the most abundant and widely dispersed pipefish in South Australia and found to 20m mainly in Posidonia seagrass beds. In South Australia, both museum records and recent studies (McDonald PhD thesis, in prep) show this species lives in high densities in inshore to moderate depth sea grass beds.

A taxon of the Spotted  pipefish found is at very high densities in dense Posidonia sea grass at Venus Bay, western Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Females of this taxon in both museum collections and from recent surveys always displayed a very high degree dorsal compression. This taxon was shown to extend northwest of Venus Bay with several found in Baird Bay, Streaky Bay 100 km north, and at Ceduna. However, the typical South Australian form of the Spotted Pipefish replaced the Venus pipefish to the south east at Coffins Bay.  The Spotted pipefish probably extends from this point east to New South Wales. A December 2004 trip (Browne and Smith, article in prep) to the under surveyed west coast of South Australia showed large numbers of juvenile pipefish in the Spotted pipefish group (Venus Pipefish) in shallow Zostera seagrass in a sheltered bay (Laura Bay) and moderate numbers of adults in Posidonia sea grass at Pinky Point, Thevenard (image below). Juveniles of Spotted pipefish were also found at Pt. LeHunte which is the western most location recorded in South Australia for this taxon (image below).

HABITAT:

Species within the Spotted pipefish group inhabit fine to coarse strappy Posidonia sea grass in shallow to moderate depths. In an extensive survey by (McDonald PhD thesis, in prep) of approximately 2000 pipefish sampled by trawl offshore in the South Australian Gulfs , 1000 (50%) of specimens were Spotted Pipefish with the others equally distributed between Leptoichthys fistularus, Vanacampus phillipi, and Vanacampus poecilolaemus. Of seagrass types (Posidonia, Zostera/Heterozostera, Amphibolus), McDonald found that S. argus preferred Posidonia seagrass with the highest densities of S. argus found in sparse Posidonia. Stigmatopora argus was also occasionally recorded in Amphibolus sea grass.