Bovichtus variegatus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bovichtus variegatus | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Bovichtidae |
| Genus: | Bovichtus |
| Species: | B. variegatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Bovichtus variegatus J. Richardson, 1846 | |
Bovichtus variegatus, commonly known as the thornfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Bovichtidae, the temperate icefishes or thornfishes. It is endemic to New Zealand.[1]
Bovichtus variegatus was first formally described in 1846 by the Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer Sir John Richardson with the type locality given as Port Jackson in New South Wales,[2] probably erroneously because this species has not been recorded in Australia since.[3] The specific name variegatus means "variable" and was given to emphasise how the markings of this fish differ from those of B. diacanthus.[4]
Description
Bovichtus variegatus has a body which is completely lacking scales with a broad, flattened head.[5] They have large,[3] upward pointing eyes and a broad mouth. They have a robust upward and backwards pointing spine on each gill cover to the rear of the eyes. There is a double dorsal fin, the first one is short and spiny,[5] the number of spines being between 7 and 9, although 8 is most frequent count, while the second dorsal fin contains 18-20 soft rays. The anal fin contains13-15 soft rays.[3] The rays of the pelvic, pectoral and anal fins are robust and the fishes use them as props when resting on a substrate. The colour of the fins and the body is variable and they may be mottled with red, green, orange, pink and white patches on a background colour which varies from olive brown to silvery red. This species grows to 15 to 25 cm (5.9 to 9.8 in) in length.[5]