Sky-gazer
Sky-gazer | ||||||||||||
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Northern Electric Stargazer ( Astroscopus guttatus ) |
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Systematics | ||||||||||||
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Scientific name | ||||||||||||
Uranoscopidae | ||||||||||||
Bonaparte , 1832 |
The sky gazers or star gazers (Uranoscopidae ( Gr .: "Ourannos" = sky, + "skopein" = to observe)) are a family of fish from the group of perch relatives that live in seas with a tropical and temperate climate on the sea floor at a depth of up to 500 m occurs.
Sky-gazers are coveted fine-fleshed food fish .
features
Sky-gazers have a beefy exterior, a slightly dorsoventrally flattened body and a large, broad and strongly ossified head. The mouth is extremely top, the lips frayed. Their name comes from the fact that they mostly lurk buried in the sandy or muddy ground and only the small eyes on the top of the head are visible. A powerful poison sting lies behind the gill cover. The gill cover hem is long, notched, and thus enables exhalation in the sediment. The body is covered with very small scales or has no scales. The sideline organ is high up, near the back. The pelvic fins are throaty and close together, they have one hard and five soft rays. The first, small, hard-radiating dorsal fin is always separated from the second, elongated one. Some species lack the first dorsal fin. The long anal fin has 12 to 18 soft rays. The caudal fin is straight or is slightly indented. Some species have more or less powerful electrical organs (originated from eye muscles). Some species use a worm-like extension on the inside of the lower jaw (mandibular valve) as bait to attract prey. To pack the prey, the head is raised strongly, for which the foremost vertebrae are differentiated accordingly.
Genera and species
There are eight genera with around 50 species:
- Genus Electric Stargazer ( Astroscopus )
- Northern Electric Stargazer ( Astroscopus guttatus Abbott 1860 )
- Astroscopus sexspinosus (Steindachner, 1876) (south Brazilian and north Argentine coast): D1 VI; 30 cm.
- Southern stargazer ( Astroscopus y-graecum (Cuvier, 1829) )
- Astroscopus zephyreus Gilbert & Starks in Gilbert, 1897 from the west coast of America: Southern California (also in the Gulf) to Peru. D1 IV; 52 cm.
- Genus Genyagnus
- Genyagnus monopterygius (Schneider, 1801)
- Genus Ichthyscopus
- Ichthyscopus barbatus Mees, 1960
- Ichthyscopus fasciatus Haysom, 1957
- Ichthyscopus insperatus Mees, 1960
- Ichthyscopus lebeck (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- Ichthyscopus malacopterus (Anonymous [Bennett], 1830)
- Ichthyscopus nigripinnis Gomon & Johnson, 1999
- Ichthyscopus pollicaris Vilasri et al., 2019
- Ichthyscopus sannio Whitley, 1936
- Ichthyscopus spinosus Mees, 1960
- Genus cathetostomy
- Kathetostoma albigutta (Bean, 1892)
- Kathetostoma averruncus Jordan & Bollman, 1890
- Kathetostoma binigrasella Gomon & Roberts, 2011
- Cathetostoma canaster Gomon & Last, 1987
- Kathetostoma cubana Barbour, 1941
- Kathetostoma fluviatilis Hutton, 1872
- Kathetostoma giganteum Haast, 1873
- Kathetostoma laeve (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
- Kathetostoma nigrofasciatum Waite & McCulloch, 1915
- Genus Pleuroscopus
- Pleuroscopus pseudodorsalis Barnard, 1927
- Genus Selenoscopus
- Selenoscopus turbisquamatus Okamura & Kishimoto, 1993
- Genus Uranoscopus
- Uranoscopus affinis Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829
- Uranoscopus albesca Regan, 1915
- Uranoscopus archionema Regan, 1921
- Uranoscopus bauchotae Brüss, 1987
- Uranoscopus brunneus Fricke, 2018
- Uranoscopus bicinctus Temminck & Schlegel, 1843
- Uranoscopus cadenati Poll, 1959
- Uranoscopus chinensis Guichenot in Sauvage, 1882
- Uranoscopus cognatus Cantor, 1849
- Uranoscopus crassiceps Alcock, 1890
- Uranoscopus dahlakensis Brüss, 1987
- Uranoscopus dollfusi Brussels, 1987
- Uranoscopus filibarbis Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829
- Uranoscopus fuscomaculatus Kner, 1868
- Uranoscopus guttatus Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829
- Uranoscopus japonicus Houttuyn, 1782
- Uranoscopus kaianus Günther, 1880
- Uranoscopus kishimotoi Fricke, 2018
- Uranoscopus marisrubri Brüss, 1987
- Uranoscopus marmoratus Cuvier in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1829
- Uranoscopus oligolepis Bleeker, 1878
- Uranoscopus polli Cadenat, 1951
- Uranoscopus rosette Randall & Arnold, 2012
- Skygazer ( Uranoscopus scaber Linnaeus, 1758 )
- White-edged sky-gazer ( Uranoscopus sulphureus Valenciennes in Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1832 )
- Uranoscopus tosae (Jordan & Hubbs, 1925)
- Genus Xenocephalus
- Xenocephalus armatus Kaup, 1858
- Xenocephalus australiensis (Kishimoto, 1989)
- Xenocephalus cribratus (Kishimoto, 1989)
- Xenocephalus egregius (Jordan & Thompson, 1905)
- Xenocephalus elongatus (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843)
literature
- Joseph S. Nelson : Fishes of the World. 4th edition. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken NJ et al. 2006, ISBN 0-471-25031-7 .
- Kurt Fiedler: Textbook of Special Zoology, Volume II, Part 2: Fish . Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1991, ISBN 3-334-00339-6 .
Web links
- Himmelsgucker on Fishbase.org (English)