Pegasus tetrabelos
| Pegasus tetrabelos | ||||||||||||
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The holotype of Pegasus tetrabelos , top, side and bottom views. |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pegasus tetrabelos | ||||||||||||
| Pogonoski , Appleyard & White , 2016 |
Pegasus tetrabelos , in English as Short-spined Seamoth (short-thorn sea moth), is a small marine fish from the family of winged fish(Pegasidae) that occurs on the coast of Northern Australia. The cryptic species was newly described in March 2016 and has so far been found in the Beagle Gulf on the coast of the Northern Territory , on the northern tip of the Cape York Peninsula and in the Great Barrier Reef on the east coast of Queensland . The fish live at depths of 8 to 40 meters sympatric with the very similar slender winged steed ( Pegasus volitans ) over sandy and muddy bottoms.
features
Pegasus tetrabelos becomes up to twelve centimeters long. It is cream-colored to medium brown on the upper side, with dark brown spots, spots and saddle spots, the underside is light. The body is slimmer than that of the sculptured winged fish ( P. lancifer ) and the brick winged fish ( P. laternarius ) and also relatively flat , its height is between 6.8 and 9.5% of the SL , the long rostrum makes up 22.5 to 29.5% of the SL. The caudal fin stalk is surrounded by 12 bony rings, of which the first nine can move against each other, while the last three have grown together. The last bone ring of the caudal fin stalk has two pairs of spines pointing backwards, to which the scientific name of the species refers ( Gr .: "tetra" = four + "belos" = thorn). The number of vertebrae is 21, of which 7 are trunk vertebrae and 14 tail vertebrae. The only dorsal fin sits on the caudal fin stalk and, like the anal fin , is supported by five soft fin rays. The pectoral fins are fan-shaped and have nine (rarely) to ten fin rays.
- Fin formula : dorsal 5, anal 5, pectoral 10 (9), ventral I / 2.
Females that are longer than 7.5 cm are slightly wider than the males, but their rostrum is narrower. There are no gender differences in smaller animals.
literature
- Deborah Osterhage, John J. Pogonoski, Sharon A. Appleyard, William T. White (2016): Integrated Taxonomy Reveals Hidden Diversity in Northern Australian Fishes: A New Species of Seamoth (Genus Pegasus ). PLOS ONE 11 (3): e0149415. DOI: 10.1371 / journal.pone.0149415
