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Dactylopterus volitans

Dactylopterus volitans (*)

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Osteichthyes
Classis: Actinopterygii
Subclassis: Neopterygii
Infraclassis: Teleostei
Superordo: Acanthopterygii
Ordo: Scorpaeniformes
Subordo: Dactylopteroidei
Familia: Dactylopteridae
Genus: Dactylopterus
Species: Dactylopterus volitans

Name

Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)

Reference

Dactylopterus volitans Report on ITIS

Vernacular Names

Ελληνικά : Χελιδονόψαρο Κόκκινο

The flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans, is a fish of tropical to warm temperate waters on both sides of the Atlantic, found as far north as New Jersey and south as Brazil, and from the English Channel to Angola.

As of August 2009, The flying gurnard has been seen by SCUBA divers in beds of sea grass off the north coast of the Dominican Republic in less than 10 feet of water. When calm, the fish looks fairly normal, other than its odd box shape. When excited, the fish spreads its "wings", which are semi-transparent but tipped with a beautiful and phosphorescent bright blue coloration (designed to scare away predators). The prominent front portion of the "wing" is shaped much like the foot of an amphibian, which causes the fish to take on a "lizard-like" look.

The fish also has large eyes and the head is similar to species of a porcupine pufferfish.

Biology Encyclopedia

Fish Images

Source: Wikipedia, Wikispecies: All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License