''Bovichtus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Bovichtidae Bovichtidae, the temperate icefishes or thornfishes, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes, classified in the suborder Notothenioidei of the order Perciformes. They are native to coastal waters off Australia, New Zealand, and South America. ...

found in the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

and

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Taxonomy

''Bovichtus'' was formally described as a genus in 1832 by the French

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

Achille Valenciennes Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. His study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology. ...

with ''Callionymus diacanthus'', which had been described by the Scottish

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

and officer in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

Dugald Carmichael Dugald Carmichael (born 1772 in Stronacraoibh, Lismore Island, died 1827 in Appin) was a Scottish botanist and officer in the 72nd Highlanders. He is known as the "Father of Marine Botany". The plant genus ''Carmichaelia'' is named after him. He ...

in 1819 with the type locality given as

Tristan da Cunha Tristan da Cunha (), colloquially Tristan, is a remote group of volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is the most remote inhabited archipelago in the world, lying approximately from Cape Town in South Africa, from Saint Helena ...

in the South Atlantic, as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. The name of the genus, ''Bovichtus'', is derived from bovus meaning "bull" and ''ichthys'' which means fish, based on the local name for ''Bovichtus'' species in Valparaiso, Chile, ''torrito'', meaning "little bull".

Species

There are currently 8 recognized species in this genus: * '' Bovichtus angustifrons''

Regan The family name Regan, along with its cognates O'Regan, O Regan, Reagan, and O'Reagan, is an Anglicized form of the Irish surname Ó Riagáin or Ó Ríogáin, from Ua Riagáin. The meaning is likely to have originated in ancient Gaelic ''ri'' ...

, 1913 * '' Bovichtus argentinus''

MacDonagh The surname McDonagh, also spelled MacDonagh is from the Irish language Mac Dhonnchadha, and is now one of the rarer surnames of Ireland. Mac Dhonnchadha, Mac Donnchadha, Mac Donnacha or Mac Donnchaidh is the original form of McDonagh These sur ...

, 1931 * '' Bovichtus chilensis''

, 1913 * '' Bovichtus diacanthus'' ( Carmichael, 1819) * '' Bovichtus oculus'' Hardy, 1989 * '' Bovichtus psychrolutes'' Günther, 1860 (Scaled thornfish) Balushkin, A.V. (2016): Systematics of the Antarctic Thornfishes of the Genus ''Bovichtus'' (Bovichtidae) of the Seamounts of the New Zealand Basin. ''Journal of Ichthyology, 56 (5): 631-638.'' * '' Bovichtus variegatus'' ( J. Richardson, 1846) (Thornfish) * '' Bovichtus veneris'' Sauvage, 1879 A genetic review of the South American species found that ''B. argentinus'' and the specimens claimed to be of "''B. diacanthus''" collected off South America were all the same species, the oldest name for which would be ''B. chilensis'', this includes ''B. elongatus'' of the Antarctic as a synonym of ''B. chilensis''. This does not appear to have been widely accepted.

Characteristics

Bovichtus fishes have a terminal, protractile mouth with teeth on the

palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

. There is a robust backwards pointing spine on the operculum. They have a single

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

and the anterior dorsal fin is spiny and starts above the operculum. The soft rays in the posterior dorsal fin and the

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

are simple, the rear most anal fin rays are thickened and longer than the front rays. If they have any scales they are restricted to Aarn isolated patch to the rear of the base of the

pectoral fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as ...

s. They are normally mottled in colour and their gill membranes direct the exiting water upwards, an adaptation for a sedentary benthic lifestyle. In the pectoral fins the lowest rays are unbranched with a thick cuticle, extend a little beyond the membrane and have upturned tips, the rearmost anal fin rays are also structured like this. This is apparently convergent with the unrelated

blennies Blenny (from the Greek and , mucus, slime) is a common name for many types of fish, including several families of percomorph marine, brackish, and some freshwater fish sharing similar morphology and behaviour. Six families are considered "true ...

of the subfamily

Blenniinae Blenniinae is one of two subfamilies in the combtooth blenny family Blenniidae, it is the smallest of the two subfamilies in the Blennidae with 16 genera and 95 species. Genera The following genera are classifies as belonging to the Blenniinae ...

and may be an adaptation for clinging on to surfaces. Any scales present ate cteniod.

Distribution and habitat

Bovichtus fishes are found in the temperate and Antarctic waters of the Southern Hemisphere. They occur along both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of southern South American, off the

Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...

in the South Atlantic

Ile St Paul Ile may refer to: * iLe, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino acid * Another ...

in the southern Indian Ocean, southern Australia,

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, New Zealand, the

Campbell Plateau The Campbell Plateau is a large oceanic plateau south of New Zealand and the Chatham Rise. It originated in the Gondwanan breakup and is part of Zealandia, a largely submerged continent. The above sea level parts of the plateau — the Bounty ...

and on

seamounts A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

to the east of New Zealand in the southern Pacific. One species, ''B. oculus'' is found in deep waters on the Campbell Plateau while all of the remaining species have their adult form as benthic dwellers on rocky reefs in shallow waters or in tidal or inter-tidal pools.

Biology

''Bovichtus'' are mainly

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

species, waiting on the substrate to ambush prey and have been seen perched underneath or upside down on surfaces, presumably using their adapted pectoral and anal fins to grip with. Their diet is made up of invertebrates, mainly crustaceans and worms. At least one species has a pelagic larval phase which allows for dispersal and may account for the relatively wide distribution of the genus compared to the other two genera in the family Bovichtidae.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5257980 Bovichtidae Marine fish genera Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes