The Northern ronquil (''Ronquilus jordani'') is
species of marine
ray-finned fish belonging to the
family Bathymasteridae
Ronquils (sometimes spelt ronchils) is a small family marine ray-finned fish, the Bathymasteridae. These fishes are found only in Arctic and North Pacific waters. This family contains just seven species in three genera. The larger species are im ...
, the ronquils. This species is found in the eastern
Pacific Ocean. This species is the only known member of its
genus.
Taxonomy
The stripedfin ronquil was first formally
described as ''Bathymaster jordani'' in 1889 by the American
ichthyologist
Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...
Charles Henry Gilbert with the
type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
given as
Puget Sound in
Washington.
When
David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...
and
Edwin Chapin Starks proposed the
monotypic genus ''Ronquilus'' they designated this species as its
type species.
The genus is classified in the family Bathymasteridae which is in the
Scorpaeniform suborder
Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...
Zoarcoidei.
Etymology
The genus name is an
anglicization
Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Culture of England, English culture or Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English ...
from the
Spanish word ''ronco'', ''ronquillo'' being a
diminutive
A diminutive is a root word that has been modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning, either to convey the smallness of the object or quality named, or to convey a sense of intimacy or endearment. A (abbreviated ) is a word-formati ...
, and which means “one who grunts”, although Jordan and Starks did not mention croaking. 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 ...
''jordani'' honors David Starr Jordan who, with Gilbert, first identified this species in Puget Sound.
Description
The Northern ronquil is a small, cylindrical ichthyoplankton with brown to gray head, and two yellow bands on cheek. The body is gray with dark spots near pale or pale-yellow fins. This species can be distinguished from other members of the Bathymaster family by its cheek scales and the absence of some features in the cephalic lateralis system.
This species has a maximum published
total length of .
[
]
Distribution and habitat
Northern ronquil is found in the northern Pacific Ocean from the eastern Aleutian Islands at Unimak Pass
The Fox Islands Passes are waterways in the Fox Islands area of the U.S. state of Alaska, connecting the Bering Sea with the North Pacific Ocean .
From the southward and eastward, bound for Bering Sea, there are three passes used by deep-draft ...
south to southern California, although it seems to be rare off California. Reports from elsewhere in the northern Pacific require to be verified.[ The adults are primarily benthic (bottom-dwelling) along rocky continental shelf and upper slope waters of the north-eastern Pacific Ocean. However, larvae and juveniles are considered neustonic, and occupy waters closer to the surface. This is thought to be beneficial due to increased growth in the warmer surface water and reduced predation at shallower depth.]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q556627
Bathymasteridae
Monotypic fish genera
Fish described in 1889
Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert
Taxa named by David Starr Jordan
Taxa named by Edwin Chapin Starks