Old wife

For the game fish native to the western Atlantic, see Trachinotus goodei.

Enoplosus armatus
Temporal range: Earliest Paleocene to Present 65.5–0 Ma
Old wife, Enoplosus armatus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Enoplosidae
T. N. Gill, 1893[3]
Genus: Enoplosus
Lacépède, 1802[2]
Species:
E. armatus
Binomial name
Enoplosus armatus
(J. White, 1790)
Synonyms[4]
  • Chaetodon armatus J. White, 1790

Enoplosus armatus, commonly referred to as the old wife (plural: old wives), is a species of perciform fish endemic to the temperate coastal waters of Australia.[5] It is the only modern species in the family Enoplosidae.[6]

Old wives are commonly found in pairs or large schools.[7]

It has a deep and compressed body and concave forehead. These features are characteristic of typical butterflyfishes.[8] However, the old wife is easily distinguished by its silver-and-black, vertical, zebra-striped coloration, and by its two prominent dorsal fins. The second dorsal fin is very long and sickle-shaped. The fish grows up to 50 cm long.

The second dorsal fin is longer and sickle-shaped.

Its dorsal fins have bony, knife-like spines.[9] These have no obvious venom groove nor gland.[10] Nonetheless, the spines are widely considered to inflict a painful venom.[5]

The name "old wife" refers to the sound it makes when caught, caused by it grinding its teeth.[5][11] Other vernacular names have included "bastard dory", "zebra-fish" (also used for Girella zebra), and "double scalare".[12] It has a similar range and appearance to the Moonlighter (Tilodon sexfasciatus).[13]

  1. ^ Holleman, W.; Fennessy, S.; Russell, B. (2020). "Enoplosus armatus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020: e.T143616007A143616622. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T143616007A143616622.en. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
  2. ^ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Enoplosus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  3. ^ Richard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 001–230. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1. PMID 25543675.
  4. ^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Enoplosus armatus". FishBase. December 2019 version.
  5. ^ a b c Old Wife, The Australian Museum.
  6. ^ J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 442–443. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6.
  7. ^ Old Wife Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Reef Watch Victoria. (Divers' monitoring and conservation project.)
  8. ^ "Most [butterflyfish, angelfish and surgeonfish] have thin, oval or disk-shaped bodies. They typically have bright colors and patterns. Butterflyfish are usually round, small and have concave foreheads. They often have long snouts for feeding from crevices." AWARE-Fish Identification, Adventures in Diving Manual, PADI (2010).
  9. ^ Carl Edmonds, Dangerous marine creatures, 1989. "Although it has been described as venomous, this apparently is of a variable nature as many lacerations from the knife-like dorsal spines have been known by this author to be relatively painless. It appears as if the pain and bleeding may be inversely related, ..." p.70
  10. ^ Smith and Wheeler, Venom Evolution Widespread in Fishes, Journal of Heredity v.97 i.3 pp.206-217 (2006).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Morrison was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Agustin, Liza Q.; et al. (13 July 2007). "Common Names of Enoplosus armatus". Common name summary. FishBase. Retrieved 3 January 2009.
  13. ^ Moonlighter Archived 2012-05-31 at the Wayback Machine, Dive Around. (Guide to marine life.)