Species guide of Scorpaena species from the North-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean

The family Scorpaenidae comprises a diverse group of venomous marine fishes with complex taxonomy and high morphological similarity, making accurate species identification challenging. Within this family, the genus Scorpaena represents one of the most species-rich and widely distributed groups, with particularly high diversity in the Atlantic basin. The North-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean region hosts ten currently recognized Scorpaena species and is of special ecological, commercial, and public-health relevance due to intensive fisheries, human activity, and the venomous nature of these fishes. Existing identification resources for this region, notably those provided in Fishes of the North-eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean (Whitehead et al., 1986), are now outdated given taxonomic revisions, newly recorded species, and shifts in species distributions driven by environmental change. This work updates and supplements previous treatments by providing an illustrated, user-oriented identification key, revised diagnostic characters, and current distribution data. The guide is intended as a practical field and reference tool for researchers, fisheries managers, and educators, supporting accurate identification of Scorpaena species in the region.