Pagetopsis maculata is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Channichthyidae, the crocodile icefishes. It is found in the Southern Ocean. It is of no interest to commercial fisheries.
| Pagetopsis maculata | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Perciformes |
| Family: | Channichthyidae |
| Genus: | Pagetopsis |
| Species: | P. maculata
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| Binomial name | |
| Pagetopsis maculata | |
Taxonomy
editPagetopsis maculata was first formally described in 1958 as Pagetopsis maculatus by the Soviet scientists Vladimir Viktorovich Barsukov and Yuri Yefimovich Permitin with the type locality given as MacKenzie Bay. The specific name should have been feminine and was subsequently changed to maculata, an allusion to the more irregular blotched pattern on its body compared to the striped pattern of P. macropterus.[1] The specific name maculata means "spotted".[2]
Description
editPagetopsis maculata is greyish-green but whitish ventrally with 15 irregularly shaped dark cross-bars on each side of its body that are lighter at the centre. Dark stripes are also present on the cheek and otherwise uniformly blackish first dorsal fin. The pelvic fin is also striped. The dorsal fins contain 9 to 12 spines and 25 to 27 soft rays while the anal fin has 22 to 24 soft rays. The maxilla reaches to or just beyond the front of the orbit.[3] This species attains a maximum total length of 25 cm (9.8 in).[4]
Distribution, habitat and biology
editPagetopsis maculata has a circum-Antarctic distribution on the continental shelf from 200 to 800 m (660 to 2,620 ft). They have large eyes, the colour pattern and the reported depths of capture seem to infer that this bathydemersal species inhabits deeper water than its congener Pagetopsis macropterus.[3] This species has a long larval pelagic phase and is of no interest to commercial fisheries.[4]
References
edit- ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Pagetopsis". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
- ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara, eds. (12 April 2021). "Order Perciformes: Suborder Notothenoididei: Families Bovichtidae, Pseaudaphritidae, Elegopinidae, Nototheniidae, Harpagiferidae, Artedidraconidae, Bathydraconidae, Channichthyidae and Percophidae". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
- ^ a b T. Iwami and K-H Koch (1990). "Channicthyidae Icefishes". In O. Gon and P.C. Heemstra (eds.). Fishes of the Southern Ocean. South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. ISBN 9780868102115.
- ^ a b Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Pagetopsis maculata". FishBase. June 2021 version.