Blepsias

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Blepsias
Crested sculpin (B. bilobus)
Silverspotted sculpin (B. cirrhosus)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Agonidae
Subfamily: Hemitripterinae
Genus: Blepsias
G. Cuvier, 1829
Type species
Trachinus cirrhosus
Pallas, 1814[1]
Synonyms[1]

Blepsias is a

ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Agonidae, the poachers and related fishes. These fishes are found in the coastal northern Pacific Ocean
from Japan to California.

Taxonomy

Blepsias was first proposed as a genus by the French

zoologist Georges Cuvier with Trachinus cirrhosus, which had originally been described in 1814 by Peter Simon Pallas from Kamchatka, as the type species.[1] The genus is included in the subfamily Hemitripterinae of the family Agonidae.[2] Cuvier used a Greek name for a fish, as was his habit, for the name of the new genus.[3]

Species

The recognized species in this genus are:[4]

Characteristics

Blepsias has a spiny

standard lengths of 20 cm (7.9 in) in the case of B. cirrhosus and 25 cm (9.8 in) in B. bilobus.[4]

Distribution and habitat

Blepsias sculpins are found in the North Pacific and the adjacent Arctic waters from Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk north to the Chukchi and Bering seas to central California.[6] They are demersal fishes of shallow, even intertidal, waters where there is algae.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Hemitripterinae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
  2. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. Archived from the original
    on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
  3. ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara, eds. (22 October 2022). "Order Perciformes: Suborder Cottoidea: Infraorder Cottales: Families Trichodontidae, Jordaniidae, Rhamphocottidae, Scorpaenichthyidae and Agonidae". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  4. ^ a b c Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2022). Species of Blepsias in FishBase. August 2022 version.
  5. ^ Cuvier, G. and A. Valenciennes (1829). Histoire naturelle des poissons. Tome quatrième. Livre quatrième. Des acanthoptérygiens à joue cuirassée (in French).
  6. ^ Mecklenburg, C. W. (2003). "Family Hemitripteridae Gill 1872 — sea ravens or sailfin sculpins" (PDF). California Academy of Sciences Annotated Checklists of Fishes. 5.