''Pterygotrigla multiocellata'', the antrorse spined gurnard, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of 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 the appropriate s ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

belonging to 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 ...

Triglidae, the gurnards and sea robins. This fish is found in the Indo-Pacific region where it has been recorded from Japan,

Saipan Saipan ( ch, Sa’ipan, cal, Seipél, formerly in es, Saipán, and in ja, 彩帆島, Saipan-tō) is the largest island of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Commonwealth (U.S. insular area), commonwealth of the United States in the western Pa ...

, and the eastern and western tropical waters off Australia.

Taxonomy

''Pterygotrigla multiocellata'' was first formally described in 1937 as ''Parapterygotrigla multiocellata'' by the Japanese

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 ...

Kiyomatsu Matsubara was a Japanese marine biologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Born Kiyomatsu Sakamoto in Hyogo Prefecture, Kiyomatsu Matsubara was the first professor of the Department of Fisheries of the University of Kyoto and is considered to be the fou ...

with the type locality given as the

Kumano Sea The Kumano Nada () is a body of water belonging to North Pacific Ocean (Philippines Sea) located off the coast of Kumano Region of the Kii Peninsula located in central Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an ...

southeast of the

Kii Peninsula The is the largest peninsula on the island of Honshū in Japan. It is named after the ancient Kii Province. Overview The area south of the “ Central Tectonic Line” is called , and is home to reef-like coral communities which are amongst ...

in Japan. It is classified within the

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

''Parapterygotrigla'' of the

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 ...

Pterygotrigla ''Pterygotrigla'' is a genus of genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Triglidae, the gurnards and sea robins, one of two genera belonging to the subfamily Pterygotriglinae. These gurnards are found in the Indian and Pacific ...

'' and is the type species of that subgenus. The specific name is a compound of ''multi'' with ''ocellata'', which means "having eye-like spots", an allusion to the upper half of the body having a scattering of small yellowish dark-brown spots.

Description

''Pterygotrigla multiocellata'' has a large, triangular head with no spines around the eye but with a nasal spine and a short spine on the operculum and a long spine on the nape. The spines on the rostrum are robust but short there is an forward pointing, or antrorse, rostral spine, as well as a long cleithral spine. There are 10 bucklers, bony flat plates, along the base of the first

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

with the first buckler extending to the front of the first spine. The overall colour is red with no black spots. The first dorsal fin has 7 or 8 spines and the second has between 10 and 12 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 11 to 13 soft rays. This species has attained a maximum published

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...

of .

Distribution and habitat

''Pterygotrigla multiocellata'' is found in the Southeastern Indian Ocean and West Pacific where it occurs in Japan,

and eastern and western tropical Australia. It has also been recorded in Korea. This is a rare species of deep waters at depths between .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2396578 Fish described in 1937 Taxa named by Kiyomatsu Matsubara multiocellata