''Alloblennius anuchalis'' is a species of

combtooth blenny Combtooth blennies are blenniiformids; percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Combtooth blennies are found in tropic ...

(family Blenniidae) in the genus ''

Alloblennius ''Alloblennius'' is a genus of combtooth blennies (family Blenniidae) found in the western and northeastern Indian Ocean.

''. It is a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

blenny found in the western

Indian ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, around

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

and

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

. Males can reach a maximum

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

of 2.4 centimetres (0.91 inches).''Alloblennius anuchalis''
at www.fishbase.org. The species is

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that lay their eggs, with little or no other embryonic development within the mother. This is the reproductive method of most fish, amphibians, most reptiles, and all pterosaurs, dinosaurs (including birds), and ...

.Reproduction of ''Alloblennius anuchalis''
at www.fishbase.org.

Etymology

Springer and Spreitzer originally considered the blenny a member of the genus ''

Antennablennius ''Antennablennius'' is a genus of combtooth blennies found in the Indian Ocean, largely in the western regions. Species There are currently nine recognized species in this genus: * '' Antennablennius adenensis'' Fraser-Brunner, 1951 (Aden blen ...

'', due to suspicion that ''Alloblennius'' was a

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

of the genus. The species epithet, treated as an appositional noun, combines the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

prefix "''a''" ("without") and the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

noun "''nucha''" ("nape") to produce the definition "without nape", referring to the lack of

cirri Giovanni Battista Cirri (1 October 1724 – 11 June 1808) was an Italian cellist and composer in the 18th century. Biography Cirri was born in Forlì in the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy. He had his first musical training with his brother ...

on the nape of the blenny. The authors acknowledged that this was an unusual trait for a member of ''Antennablennius''.Springer, V.G., and A.E. Spreitzer, 1978 (11 Apr.) [ref. 4181
''Five new species and a new genus of Indian Ocean blenniid fishes, tribe Salariini, with a key to genera of the tribe.''
Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology No. 268: i-iii + 1-20.

References

External links

''Alloblennius anuchalis''
at ITIS
''Alloblennius anuchalis''
at WoRMS anuchalis Taxa named by Victor G. Springer Fish described in 1978 {{Blenniidae-stub