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New Zealand urchin clingfish

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New Zealand urchin clingfish
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Gobiesociformes
Family: Gobiesocidae
Genus: Dellichthys
Species:
D. morelandi
Binomial name
Dellichthys morelandi
Briggs, 1955

The New Zealand urchin clingfish (Dellichthys morelandi) is a clingfish. It is found around New Zealand wherever sea urchins are present. Its length is between 2 and 3 cm.[1]

This species was described by John C. Briggs in 1955[2] and was thought to be the sole species in the monotypic genus Dellichthys until 2018 when a new species, Dellichthys trnskii, was described after being discovered from intertidal and shallow coastal waters of New Zealand in that year.[3] Briggs gave the species its specific name in honour of John Munne Moreland (1921-2012) of the Dominion Museum in Wellington.[4]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Dellichthys morelandi". FishBase. April 2019 version.
  2. ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Dellichthys morelandi". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  3. ^ Conway, Kevin W.; Stewart, Andrew L.; Summers, Adam P. (2018). "A new species of sea urchin associating clingfish of the genus Dellichthys from New Zealand (Teleostei, Gobiesocidae)". ZooKeys (740): 77–95. doi:10.3897/zookeys.740.22712. PMC 5904551. PMID 29674890. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
  4. ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (7 February 2019). "Order GOBIESOCIFORMES (Clingfishes)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 6 June 2019.