bait-stealer

Open encyclopedia reference

The cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus), also known as the blue perch, bergall, chogset, choggie, conner or sea perch, is a species of wrasse native to the northwestern Atlantic, where it is found from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Newfoundland to the Chesapeake Bay. They inhabit inshore waters living near the sea floor at depths from 10 to 128 m (33 to 420 ft), preferring areas with beds of seaweed, shipwrecks, or wharf pilings. They spend the winter months in a state of torpor underneath rocks. They can also be found in the aquarium trade. Often, cunner is found mixed in with tautogs, living on or near the same structures. Much of the food eaten by those bergall living among blackfish are the leftovers from the blackfishes prey. They can be distinguished from the tautog by their pointed snouts. Cunners are generally smaller, so are usually thrown back by anglers who think they caught a "short" tautog. In past years, they have been important commercial fish, but now are considered pests.

Wikipedia contributors, Cunner; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:41:58.059608+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Tautogolabrus adspersus (Walbaum, 1792)

Name authority

(Walbaum, 1792)

Common name

bait-stealer

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Family

Labridae

Genus

Tautogolabrus

Extinction status

Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. familyLabridae Cuvier, 1816
11. subfamilyLabrinae Cuvier, 1816
12. genusTautogolabrus Günther, 1862
13. speciesTautogolabrus adspersus (Walbaum, 1792)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 527 records assigned to Labridae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=159785 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:54ZGZ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.