Butterfly-winged comber
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The Canary comber — and not the painted comber, which is a different fish in a different sea. Separated from it by genetics and colour in 2021.
Safety: injury while handling fish — minor injury.
Catching Butterfly-winged comber
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- Ground
- When
- May — months recorded at the places that document it, not a season for the whole range.
- Where
- 1 place FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: recorded here · From the shore
The Canary comber is not the painted comber, and the difference is recent enough that a good deal of writing still gets it wrong.
`Painted comber` is the English name of *Serranus scriba*, a Mediterranean and Black Sea fish. FishBase gives its distribution as exactly that, and excludes the Canaries deliberately.
In 2021 a study compared island specimens from the Canaries with Mediterranean *S. scriba*, morphologically and genetically. The colour banding differed; the mitochondrial COI and ND2 markers and the nuclear Rhod and PTR markers differed, with no shared haplotypes and interspecific divergence of 4.31% at COI and 8.68% at ND2. The authors resurrected *Serranus papilionaceus* Valenciennes, 1832 as a valid species, and the Canary Government's own marine observation network now files the archipelago's `cabrilla pintada` under that name.
The fish itself is a small, big-mouthed sea bass of the same type as the comber: a slim, boldly barred serranid that lives in holes and under ledges on rock and rubble, takes almost any small bait dropped near it, and reaches a FishBase maximum of 36 cm and 0.67 kg over a depth range of 3 to 80 m. It has no IUCN assessment, which is what would be expected of a species that was formally separated four years ago.
The general rule this fish teaches is worth carrying to any island coast: AN OCEANIC ARCHIPELAGO IS WHERE SISTER SPECIES GET SEPARATED. A Macaronesian fish that shares an English common name with a mainland one is a reason to check the scientific name rather than assume it.
How it is caught
Where Butterfly-winged comber is documented
Places where public sources describe this species as fished, with how it is fished and how strongly the evidence supports it. This is not a range map and it is not a recommendation — it is what has been written down about a fishery rather than a record of any individual catch, and being listed is never permission to fish.
Lanzarote
1 documented place
The cliff coast between Puerto del Carmen and Puerto Calero
Rock mark
Recorded here
From the shore
Reported May
What these strengths mean
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
Identification
No photograph of Butterfly-winged comber has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Serranus papilionaceus
- Family
- Serranidae
- Water
- Saltwater
- Conservation status
- Not assessed
- Regions
- Western Europe, West Africa, North Africa
- A slim, big-mouthed little sea bass with bold dark vertical bars over a brown to reddish ground and coloured lines about the head.
- The colour banding pattern is the field character that separates it from the Mediterranean painted comber, Serranus scriba — the difference the 2021 study rested part of its case on.
- Range settles it in practice: this is the comber of the Canaries and the north-west African coast, and Serranus scriba is the comber of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
- Larger and more boldly marked than the comber, Serranus cabrilla, which shares its ground and is finely lined rather than barred.
- FishBase notes that reports of this species from Madeira and the Azores are unsubstantiated, so a comber from those islands should not be assumed to be this one.
Size
- Typical
- 12–22 cm
- Large
- 25–30 cm
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 36 cm and 0.67 kg
Lifecycle and reproduction
Demersal over a depth range of 3 to 80 m on rock, rubble and reef. FishBase gives it low resilience. Its life history is thinly documented, which is the expected state for a species separated from a well-studied relative within the last five years.
Not documented for this species. Serranus species are frequently simultaneous hermaphrodites — the comber, Serranus cabrilla, certainly is — and that is not asserted here about this fish, because assuming a newly separated species shares the biology of the one it was separated from is the same error as assuming it shares the range.
Feeding and senses
Takes small fish and crustaceans from ambush around holes and ledges, and takes a bait fast. Like the comber it shares ground with, it is frequently the first thing to find a bait meant for something larger.
Short-range sight from cover in clear water. It works from structure outwards, so a bait presented tight against rock is taken and one out in open water often is not.
Through the year
Resident year-round on the same rock rather than seasonal, which is the pattern for the small serranids generally. What little is published about this species' seasonality dates from before it was separated from the Mediterranean fish, so it should be read with that in mind.
Distribution
Eastern Atlantic: Mauritania south to Senegal, including Canary Is. ; including Morocco, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau and southwards to Angola. Reports of this species from Madeira and the Azores are unsubstantiated
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
A common capture on Canarian rock for anybody fishing small baits or soft plastics near structure, taken four times in a week by one light-tackle angler around Puerto del Carmen. It is eaten locally. Its wider interest is taxonomic: it is the clearest worked example on this coast of an island fish that was filed under a mainland name until somebody looked.
Handling and returning
Stiff sharp spines in the dorsal and on the gill cover, and a mouth large enough to take a finger. Unhook with pliers, grip across the body with the dorsal folded, and keep the hand clear of the operculum edge.
Safety
Injury while handling fish — Minor injury
The dorsal spines and the edge of the gill cover are sharp enough to cut a hand closed carelessly around the fish, and the mouth is large enough for a finger to go in.
What reduces it: Fold the dorsal against the body and grip across the flank behind the head, unhook with pliers, and keep fingers out of the mouth and away from the gill cover.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
More fish
Not related to this page — just the rest of the section. There is little else joined to this subject yet, and a short page should still lead somewhere.
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Serranus papilionaceus. FishBase records no IUCN assessment for this species, which is why the record says not assessed rather than estimating one.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Resurrection of the Butterfly-winged Comber, Serranus papilionaceus Valenciennes, 1832 — ZooKeys (Pensoft), 2021 (Scientific literature)Relied on for: The 2021 resurrection of Serranus papilionaceus as a valid species distinct from Serranus scriba, on morphological, mitochondrial and nuclear evidence.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- REDPROMAR — the Canary Government's marine observation and species network — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Transición Ecológica — REDPROMAR, with GRAFCAN (Conservation authority)Relied on for: That this species is recorded in Canary waters by the regional government's marine observation network, and the Canarian vernacular name it files it under.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: That this species is taken from named public shore marks on Lanzarote, how many were caught across one week in May, and the light-tackle methods and baits that took them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 4 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Blacktail comber
Serranus atricauda reaches 43.2 cm and 16 years, is stouter and darker-tailed, and is recorded from 3 to 150 m; Serranus papilionaceus is more brightly barred and recorded from 3 to 80 m. The Canary fisheries directorate gives both a Canarian name beginning `cabrilla`.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Comber
Serranus papilionaceus is boldly barred and reaches 36 cm; Serranus cabrilla is finely lined in orange and blue along the head and flank. Both occur on Canarian rock and both are called cabrilla in Spanish-language material.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
Reported, not established — 1 connection
Reported, but without independent support. Recorded because it is in circulation, not because it has been shown to hold.
Light rock fishing
Recorded four times around Puerto del Carmen and Puerto Calero on small soft plastics and baits fished tight to structure, which is how the small serranids are caught everywhere they occur.
- Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: The light-tackle methods, rigs, lures, baits and hook sizes a species-hunting angler used on Lanzarote, and the species each took.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 1 connection
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Rocky shores and reefs
Recorded as demersal over a depth range of 3 to 80 m from the Canaries down the north-west African coast, on the hard ground the small serranids hunt from.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Serranus papilionaceus.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.