Blue spotted aspirator
| Blue spotted aspirator | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dorsal view. The eyes are in front of the blue eye spots that simulate a much larger animal. |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lepadogaster lepadogaster | ||||||||||||
| ( Bonnaterre , 1788) |
The blue- spotted sucker ( clingfish , also "sticky fish") ( Lepadogaster lepadogaster ) is a north- east Atlantic representative of the almost worldwide marine family of suckers or tortoiseshell fish . In Brehms Thierleben (1892) it is still considered to be spread further north, while the British finds today are attributed to a related species, L. purpurea , because L. lepadogaster prefers warmer coasts. The shape of the shield bellies has already been compared with tadpoles and nudibranchs, but that is not accurate either - these fish have so many peculiarities. The most striking is a large belly suction cup, with which you can spend most of your life on rocks, stones, leaves and the like. Ä. pin in place. Because of the suction cup, these fish were initially thought to be relatives of the sea hare , as they are quite similar to the "sea snails" ( Liparidae ) (for example due to their slimy skin). But the (further) assignment to the sea gobies turned out to be untenable - their suction cup is also too different, although in all three groups it is caused by the agglomeration of the pectoral fins on the chest . But it's just a matter of convergences .
construction
Lepadogaster (λεπαδογάστηρ f ) actually means " limpets belly, " and that's a very good description. The suction cup of these fish is in two parts: the rear part is delimited by the very elongated, broadened four rays of the ventralia (each side); the anterior, smaller one supported by the pelvic plates. Both are "fleshy" with rows of papillae. One might think that these two parts can move somewhat against each other, so that the fish is capable of small changes in position even when sucked in. (There are also snails whose foot is split across!) But both parts together are pulled back and forth towards the body. This is also supported by the ball joint between the Supracleithrum and Cleithrum in the shoulder girdle , which is unique in fish . The head is almost as long as the rest of the body; the animal hardly reaches 7 cm in length.
The fish is widest and tallest at the back of the head, but in front of it depressed ; the mouth is large, rounded at the front (so reminiscent of a duck's beak), but overall tapering with a set of numerous pointed velvet to hackle teeth for tearing away clinging crabs and the like. a. The snout is of different lengths ( sexual dimorphism ?). The skin on the edge of the mouth is thickened ("lips"). The maxillary apparatus is derived percomorphic (but the mouth cannot be extended very much). Of the suborbitalia only the lacrimal is present. The head canal system is quite reduced, and the tail section is also missing from the lateral trunk line. The eyes are medium in size. Inside of the eyes, behind the narrows, there are two different, dark, stiff tentacles ("feelers"?) That are also very different in length (from individual to individual); behind each is a small, spherical cirrus (cf. Ophiodon elongatus ). The preoperculum ends in a long spine.
Fin formula : D 16-19, A 11, P 22-24, V (I /) 4, C 13-14. D and A are connected to the round C by fin skin. The lower part of the pectoral fin is shorter and is used for support. The gill openings are very narrow (survival out of the water for hours) and lie immediately in front of the pectoral fin bases.
Scales are absent, but the skin is protected by a thick layer of mucus. The ribs start from bones (not the other way around). The unpaired fins also show strange deviations in their skeleton. The aspirators are also known for the fact that their kidneys only have active secretion of (water and) waste materials, i.e. no ultrafiltration of the entire blood volume as is the case with most vertebrates. Furthermore, one Lepadogaster the few Teleostei whose pronephros (pronephros) goes through life not function change (Guitel 1906) .- The sperm are zweigeißelig, as Porichthys (otherwise there is still too little knowledge, suggest to this feature to be able to).
The color is highly variable: mostly ash-gray with longitudinal rows of large reddish spots, but also overall orange or uniformly blue to purple. The eyes are rimmed dark, and behind each eye there is usually a large, light eye spot , often with a dark blue "pupil" (especially in males). The coloration also changes quickly, depending on the environment and mood.
Way of life
Lepadogaster is very sluggish and can stay sucked in for days, even if it occasionally dries up due to the tide changing. It therefore occurs in the surf zone of rocky coasts, but also in seagrass meadows and flood pools , of course often hidden, for example on the underside of objects, also at the top. It lives on wood-wood crabs ( Isopoda ), worms, snails and the like. a., sometimes also small fish that are caught in their swim by. Especially during the spawning season there can be fights (impressing, jostling, tugging their mouths) for cheap hiding places, in which both parents guard their spawning clumps (in late spring); the eggs are glued to the roof of the crevice, cavity or shell, almost 2 mm in size (ovoid, golden yellow to greenish). The elongated larvae (still with swim bladder) live in open water for about two weeks, but try not to move far from the bank.
distribution
The species occurs mainly in the Mediterranean (with the exception of its southeastern part), apparently also in the Black Sea , in the western part and in the neighboring part of the Atlantic (from Madeira , the Canary Islands and Senegal to the French Biscay coast) partly together with the (earlier) subspecies purpurea and zebrina .
Individual evidence
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ Separation of species: Miguel Henriques et al .: A revision of the status of Lepadogaster lepadogaster (Teleostei: Gobiesocidae): sympatric subspecies or a long misunderstood blend of species? In: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society . tape 76 , no. 3 , July 1, 2002, p. 327-338 , doi : 10.1046 / j.1095-8312.2002.00067.x .
- ↑ Description by L. Jenyns : [2] , general [3] and archive link ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ suction pad
- ↑ History of Exploration
- ↑ Epithelium of the suction disc: WJ Schmidt: Structure and birefringence of the adhesive disc epithelium from Lepadogaster . In: Journal for Cell Research and Microscopic Anatomy . tape 27 , no. 4 , December 1937, p. 555-567 , doi : 10.1007 / BF02451198 .
- ↑ Front view ( memento of the original from March 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ P. Konstantinidis, KW Conway: The median-fin skeleton of the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean clingfishes Lepadogaster lepadogaster (Bonnaterre) and Gouania wildenowi (Risso) (Teleostei: Gobiesocidae). In: Journal of morphology. Volume 271, Number 2, February 2010, pp. 215-224, doi: 10.1002 / jmor.10792 , PMID 19708066 .
- ↑ Aglomerular kidney: Wilhelm Möllendorff: On the histophysiology of the kidneys of Hippocampus guttulatus and Lepadogaster Candollii . In: Journal for Cell Research and Microscopic Anatomy . tape 24 , no. 1 , 1936, pp. 204-226 , doi : 10.1007 / BF00401222 .
- ↑ Fighting between males and females: [4] (PDF)
Web link
- Lepadogaster lepadogaster in the Red List of Threatened Species of the IUCN 2013.2. Posted by: P. Francour, M. Goren, M. Bilecenoglu, L. Tunesi, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2014.