The Pacific leaping blenny (''Alticus arnoldorum''), also known as the leaping rockskipper, is a species of

combtooth blenny Combtooth blennies are blenny, blenniiformids; Percomorpha, percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the Order (biology), order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Com ...

(family Blenniidae) in the genus ''

Alticus ''Alticus'' is a genus of Combtooth blenny, combtooth blennies found in the Pacific and Indian Ocean, Indian oceans. It is one of 57 genera in the family Blenniidae. Species There are currently ten recognized species in this genus: * ''Alticus a ...

''. The blennies are

oviparous Oviparous animals are animals that reproduce by depositing fertilized zygotes outside the body (i.e., by laying or spawning) in metabolically independent incubation organs known as eggs, which nurture the embryo into moving offsprings kno ...

, and form distinct pairs when mating. Males can reach a maximum

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...

of 8 centimetres (3.15 inches). These fish feed primarily on

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

, which they consume by scraping off rocky surfaces.

Description

Male Pacific leaping blennies have prominent head crests and orange-red dorsal fins.

Distribution and habitat

The Pacific leaping blenny is a

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

blenny found in

reef A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic component, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition (geol ...

s in

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

and the

Marianas The Mariana Islands ( ; ), also simply the Marianas, are a crescent-shaped archipelago comprising the summits of fifteen longitudinally oriented, mostly Volcano#Dormant and reactivated, dormant volcanic mountains in the northwestern Pacific Ocean ...

Society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

, and

Cook Islands The Cook Islands is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands whose total land area is approximately . The Cook Islands' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers of ocean. Avarua is its ...

, in the western and southern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

.''Alticus arnoldorum''
at www.fishbase.org. The blennies are noted for leaping from hole to hole in the

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

rocks they inhabit, when disturbed; each of the common names for the species is derived from this. They are able to dwell on land for several hours at a time, and have been reported performing many activities, including foraging and mating while out of the water. However, they are only able to survive on land during midtide; if they remain out of water when the tide lowers enough that they cannot be kept moist, they dry out and suffocate.Pictures: "Walking" Fish a Model of Evolution in Action.
Christine Dell'Amore, September 1st, 2011. ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

News.'' In a study performed by Tonia Hsieh of

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist ministe ...

, in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, it was discovered that members of ''A. arnoldorum'' are able to thrive on land due to their ability to twist their tails axially at

90 degrees In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle of exactly 90 degrees or radians corresponding to a quarter turn. If a ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles. Th ...

, to propel their bodies. Hsieh noted that the twisting of the tail was a behaviourism unique to ''A. arnoldorum'' and species in the genus ''

Andamia ''Andamia'' is a genus of Combtooth blenny, combtooth blennies found in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Species There are currently seven recognized species in this genus: * ''Andamia amphibius'' (Johann Julius Walbaum, Walbaum, 17 ...

''; the two genera were subsequently considered

terrestrial Terrestrial refers to things related to land or the planet Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial. Terrestrial may also refer to: * Terrestrial animal, an animal that lives on land opposed to living in water, or sometimes an animal that lives on o ...

."Pacific leaping blenny now considered a terrestrial species"
www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

Name

The identity of the person commemorated in 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 ...

of this blenny is unclear. The

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, Curtiss, is known to have read ''The Sea-Beach at Ebb-Tide: A Guide to the Study of the Seaweeds and the Lower Animal Life Found Between Tidemarks'' by

Augusta Foote Arnold Augusta Newton Foote Arnold (October 24, 1844 – May 9, 1904) was an American author and naturalist who published three books – two cookery books under the pen name of Mary Ronald, and ''The Sea-Beach at Ebb-Tide'', regarded as a seminal work ...

(1844-1903) and gave several taxa a similar epithet.

References

External links

* *
A Highly Social, Land-Dwelling Fish Defends Territories in a Constantly Fluctuating Environment
by Terry J. Ord in E&ERC {{Taxonbar, from=Q1758732 Alticus Taxa named by Anthony Curtiss Fish described in 1938 Amphibious fish Fish of the Pacific Ocean Articles containing video clips