Kessler's sculpin (Leocottus kesslerii) is a species of Baikal sculpin, a freshwater fish native to Russia and Mongolia where it occurs in Lake Baikal and surrounding lakes as well as the Selenga, Angara and Bain Gol rivers.[2] It is the only member of its genus.[2] In Lake Baikal it occurs on sandy, rocky-sandy or sandy-muddy bottoms, ranging from relatively shallow water to depths of 70 m (230 ft).[3] In rivers they mainly occur in slow-flowing channels and floodplains.[3]
| Kessler's sculpin | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Cottidae |
| Subfamily: | Cottinae |
| Genus: | Leocottus Palmer, 1961 |
| Species: | L. kesslerii
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| Binomial name | |
| Leocottus kesslerii (Dybowski, 1874)
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| Synonyms | |
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This species grows to a total length of 14 cm (5.5 in), but typically is 9–11 cm (3.5–4.3 in).[3] Adults are crepuscular, and feed on gammarids, chironomids, and young fish.[3] Spawning takes place in May to June at 3–5 m (9.8–16.4 ft) depths. Eggs are deposited under stones, and the male stays guarding the eggs.[2] The pelagic larvae feed on plankton.[3]
The Kessler's sculpin is sometimes caught by commercial fishers,[3] and it is eaten by the Baikal seal, comprising about 0.3% of its diet in the winter and spring, and significantly more in the autumn.[4]
Kessler’s sculpin was first formally described as Cottus kessleri in 1874 by the Polish zoologist Benedykt Dybowski with its type locality given as Lake Baikal and the Angara, Irkut and Selenga rivers in Siberia.[5] In 1955 the name Leocottus was posthumously published by Dmitrii Nikolaevich Taliev, as a subgenus of Paracottus, but he did not designate a type species so the name was unavailable under the ICZN. In 1961 the British ichthyologist Geoffrey Palmer published the name in The Zoological Record. It is now regarded as a valid monospecific genus[6] which was classified in the family Cottocomephoridae but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World states that this taxon forms a clade arising from within the genus Cottus.[7]
References
edit- ^ Bogutskaya, N. (2020). "Leocottus kesslerii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T159632628A159632663. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-3.RLTS.T159632628A159632663.en. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- ^ a b c Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Leocottus kesslerii". FishBase. December 2012 version.
- ^ a b c d e f "Песчаная широколобка" (in Russian). zooex.baikal.ru. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
- ^ "Baikal seal". baikal.ru. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
- ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Leocottus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Cottidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 31 January 2023.
- ^ J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 467–495. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. Archived from the original on 2019-04-08. Retrieved 2023-01-31.