''Elacatinus horsti'', the yellowline goby, is a
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...
of
goby
Goby is a common name for many species of small to medium sized ray-finned fish, normally with large heads and tapered bodies, which are found in marine, brackish and freshwater environments. Traditionally most of the species called gobies have b ...
native to the western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Description
The yellowline goby grows to be in length. It has a rounded snout and a long, slim body. The upper parts are black and the underside is grey, gradually paling to white. Some fish have a bright, yellow stripes running along each side from the eye to the tail, with often a yellow spot or short line on the snout. In juvenile fish, this stripe is shorter and extends just beyond the base of the pectoral fin. Young ''
Elacatinus chancei'' is very similar in appearance, but in that species, the yellow line hardly reaches the pectoral fin. In another form of the fish, the stripe is white, paling to a bluish-grey colour beyond the pectoral fin. The dorsal fin is in two parts, and has seven spines and 11 to 12 soft rays. The pectoral fin then has 18 rays and the anal fin has a single spine and 10 soft rays.
Distribution
The yellowline goby is found on the
Gulf Coast of the United States, the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Curaçao, and Panama. It is found on reefs at depths between .
[
]
Biology
The yellowline goby is always found living in association with a tubular sponge such as ''Verongia aerophoba
''Aplysina'' is a genus of sea sponges in the order Verongiida. It was first authenticated and described by Giovanni Domenico Nardo
Giovanni Domenico Nardo (4 March 1802 – 7 April 1877) was an Italian naturalist from Venice, although he sp ...
'' or a massive sponge such as ''Neofibularia nolitangere
''Neofibularia nolitangere'', commonly known as the touch-me-not sponge, is a species of sea sponge in the family Biemnidae. It is found in shallow waters in the Western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.
Description
''Neofibularia nolitan ...
'' and feeding on the parasitic worms ''Haplosyllis spongicola
''Haplosyllis spongicola'', the sponge worm, is a species of polychaete worm in the family Syllidae. It was previously classified as ''Syllis spongicola'' and is part of a species complex of closely related species that are difficult to disti ...
'' that live in large numbers on these sponges.
Name
The specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
honours the Dutch biologist
A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually speciali ...
Cornelius van der Horst
Cornelius Jan van der Horst (11 May 1889, Nieuwer-Amstel – 10 October 1951, Johannesburg) was a Dutch biologist who worked mainly on marine biology and embryology in both the Netherlands and South Africa. As an undergraduate he studied botany ...
(1889-1951), who collected the type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
while staying on Curacao in 1920.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2518255
horsti
Fish of the Atlantic Ocean
Fish of the Caribbean
Fish of the Lesser Antilles
Fish described in 1922