''Gymnocanthus pistilliger'', the threaded sculpin, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. This species occurs in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Gymnocanthus pistilliger'' was first formally described as ''Cottus pistilliger'' in 1815 by the German zoologist Peter Simon Pallas with the type locality given as Unalaska Island and Port Avatsch. In 1829 the French zoologist

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...

described a new species, ''Cottus ventralis'', from Kamchatka and in 1839 the English zoologist

William John Swainson William John Swainson FLS, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, malacologist, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swainson was born in Dover Place, St Mary Newington, London, the eldest son of ...

classified this taxon within the monospecific genus ''

Gymnocanthus ''Gymnocanthus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the Family (biology), family Cottidae, the typical sculpins. These fishes are found in the northern Pacific, Arctic and northern Atlantic Oceans. Taxonomy ''Gymnocanthus'' was ...

''. Cuvier's ''C. ventralis'' has since been regarded as a synonym of Pallas's ''C. pistilliger''. 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 ...

''pistilliger'' means "to bear

pistil Gynoecium (; ) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ''pistils'' ...

s", a reference to the axillary

papillae Papilla (Latin, 'nipple') or papillae may refer to: In animals * Papilla (fish anatomy), in the mouth of fish * Basilar papilla, a sensory organ of lizards, amphibians and fish * Dental papilla, in a developing tooth * Dermal papillae, part of ...

of the males.

Description

''Gymnocanthus pistilliger'' has dorsal fins supported by between 9 and 11 spines and between 13 and 16 soft rays while 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 ...

has 14 to 18 soft rays. There are a small number of bony plates typically found along the median line of the space between the eyes. There is no cirrhus above the eye in adults. There are three pairs of bony tubercles on the back of the head. The cleithrum does not have a well developed spines. The males have flattened cirri on the axil of the pectoral fin. The maximum published total length is , although is more typical.

Distribution and habitat

''Gymnocanthus pistilliger'' is found in the north Pacific Ocean from the Sea of Japan, the Sea of Okhotsk to the Chukchi Peninsula in Asia and from Norton Sound, Alaska to Kiska Island in the Aleutian and southeastern Alaska in North America. They are typically found in waters shallower than over soft substrates of sand or mud. However, they have been recorded as deps as .

Biology

''Gymnocanthus pistilliger'' is thought to be a short-lived species for which otoliths give age estimates of up to 10 years for males and 9 years for females. Females collected in June had resting stage ovaries which contained some residual eggs from a previous batch of spawning. The diet of this species changes from largely gammarids and polychaetes in smaller fish to crangonid shrimp and fishes in larger specimens. In the Russian part of the Sea of Japan there is a spring migration of this species from the outer edge of the

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

towards the warmer miggle and upper parts of the shelfs where it gathers in feeding aggregations in the summer and in the autumn they gather in shoals before spawning.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2308670 Fish described in 1814 pistilliger Taxa named by Peter Simon Pallas