''Canthigaster supramacula'', known as the West African sharpnose-puffer, is a
species of marine
fish in the
family Tetraodontidae. It was first isolated from the coast of central Africa, in the
Atlantic Ocean.
[MOURA, Rodrigo L., and Ricardo CASTRO. "Revision of Atlantic sharpnose pufferfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae: Canthigaster), with description of three new species." Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington115.1 (2002): 32-50.] It is named in reference to the conspicuous
ocellus-like spot on its side, anterior to its dorsal
fin's base.
Description
''Canthigaster supramacula'' can measure up to , counting with no
dorsal spines, possessing 10 dorsal
soft rays
Fish anatomy is the study of the form or morphology of fish. It can be contrasted with fish physiology, which is the study of how the component parts of fish function together in the living fish. In practice, fish anatomy and fish physiology co ...
and 9 anal soft rays. It shows a conspicuous dark spot resembling an ocellus on the dorsal portion of its trunk, the dorsal portion of which extends towards its dorsal fin. It lacks dark stripes along the sides of the body like some of its cogenerate species, bearing two to four lines that extend from the caudal
peduncle Peduncle may refer to:
*Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed
*Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body
**Peduncle (art ...
through the dorsal fin's base .
Distribution
The species is
reef-associated. It is known from the Eastern Central Atlantic, first collected from off
Côte d'Ivoire
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, in the centre of the country, while its largest city and economic centre is ...
and Ghana.
References
Further reading
*Wirtz, Peter, et al. "Coastal fishes of São Tomé and Príncipe islands, Gulf of Guinea (Eastern Atlantic Ocean)–an update." Zootaxa 1523 (2007): 1-48.
*Randall, John E., Jeffrey T. Williams, and Luiz A. Rocha. "The Indo-Pacific tetraodontid fish Canthigaster coronata, a complex of three species." Smithiana Bulletin 9 (2008): 3-13.
*Quimbayo Agreda, Juan Pablo. "Estruturas das comunidades de peixes recifais em ilhas oceânicas do atlântico e pacífico oriental." (2013).
*Wirtz, Peter, et al. "The coastal fishes of the Cape Verde Islands–new records and an annotated check-list." Spixiana 36.1 (2013): 113–142.
External links
FishBase
supramacula
Taxa named by Rodrigo Leão de Moura
Taxa named by Ricardo Macedo Corrêa e Castro
Fish described in 2002
{{tetraodontiformes-stub