The painted greenling (''Oxylebius pictus'') is a marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family

Zaniolepididae The Zaniolepididae is a family of marine ray-finned fishes classified within the suborder Cottoidei of the order Scorpaeniformes. They are found in the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Zaniolepididae'' was first proposed as a family in 1883 by th ...

, which includes this species and the combfishes. It is endemic to the northeast Pacific Ocean. It is the only species in the genus ''Oxylebius''.

Taxonomy

The painted greenling was first formally described in 1862 by the American

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 specialize in ...

Theodore Gill with the type locality given as San Francisco. Gill classified it in the monospecific genus ''Oxylebius'' and proposed the monotypic subfamily Oxylebinae which was placed in the family

Hexagrammidae Hexagrammidae, the greenlings, is a family of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the suborder Cottoidei in the order Scorpaeniformes. These fishes are found in the North Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy Hexagrammidae was first proposed as a family ...

, although the subfamily was placed in the Zaniolepididae in the 6th edition of '' Fishes of the World'' and other authorities.

Etymology

The painted greenling's generic name ''Oxylebius'' prefixes ''oxy'' meaning "sharp", alluding to the sharper snout of this species in comparison to '' Zaniolepis'', to ''lebius'' which Gill did not explain. However jordan and Evermann gave their view that ''lebius'' is a Synonym of ''

Hexagrammos ''Hexagrammos'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Hexagrammidae, the greenlings. These fishes are found in the north Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Hexagrammos'' was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1810 by the ...

'' and is a Greek word for a fish small enough to be cooked in a kettle. The specific name, ''pictus'', means "painted" and is an allusion to the vertical banding of the body.

Description

The painted greenling has an elongated, compressed body and a long head with a pointed snout. There are 16 spines and between 14 and 16 soft rays in its

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 co ...

with 3 or 4 spines and 12 or 13 soft rays in 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 s ...

. The soft rayed part of the dorsal fin is higher than the spiny part. The

caudal 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 s ...

is slightly rounded, there is an incision in the anal fin between the spines and the soft rays abd the pelvic fin is moderately long, not reaching the

anus The anus (Latin, 'ring' or 'circle') is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, the residual semi-solid waste that remains after food digestion, which, de ...

. The head is scaled and there is a single cirrus above each eye and a pair at the back of the head. The overall colour is grayish brown broken by between five and seven broad, clear red or reddish brown bars on the flanks and these reach onto the fins. In breeding males these bars are lost. A few fish are all dark marked with white spots. Three dark bars radiate out from the eyes, one towards the snout and two back towards the nape. There are dark spots on the throat and on the caudal, pectoral, and pelvic fins.

Distribution and habitat

The painted greenling is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean where it is found from Kodiak Island,

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

to central

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

. Here it inhabits rocky areas shallower than .

Biology

Painted greenlings live in pairs or as solitary individuals. They guard their eggs and will even confront divers if they approach the cluster of orange eggs. Specimens (mainly juveniles) sometimes gain protection from larger predators by living among the tentacles of '' Cribrinopsis albopunctata'' or '' Urticina piscivora'' sea anemones, which are venomous to other animals but do not harm the painted greenling.Cowles, D. (2005).
Urticina piscivora (Sebens and Laakso, 1977).
'' Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Retrieved 29 January 2015. The painted greenling feeds on

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...

s, polychaetes, small molluscs and bryozoans.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q529202 painted greenling Western North American coastal fauna painted greenling