The bugeye dottyback (''Amsichthys knighti''), also known as Knight's dottyback, is a species of

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

, the only species in the

monospecific In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Amsichthys'', belonging to the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Pseudoplesiopinae Pseudoplesiopinae is a subfamily of the Family (biology), family Pseudochromidae, the dottybacks, it consists of small species of coral-reef inhabiting fish which are distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific. Characteristics Workers have establis ...

, of the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Pseudochromidae. It is found in the Indo-Pacific region.

Description

The bugeye dottyback is a small, rarely seen species of

dottyback The dottybacks are a family, Pseudochromidae, of fishes which were formerly classified in the order Perciformes or considered ''incertae sedis'' percomorphs, but are now considered basal blenniiforms. Around 152 species belong to this family. ...

which varies in colour from a uniform yellow through to brown. It has a pinkish snout and brown individuals have a yellow caudal fin. It goes to 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 in males.

Distribution

The bugeye dottyback is found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region from western Thailand east through the

Malay Archipelago The Malay Archipelago is the archipelago between Mainland Southeast Asia and Australia, and is also called Insulindia or the Indo-Australian Archipelago. The name was taken from the 19th-century European concept of a Malay race, later based ...

to the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands, also known simply as the Solomons,John Prados, ''Islands of Destiny'', Dutton Caliber, 2012, p,20 and passim is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 1000 smaller islands in Melanesia, part of Oceania, t ...

and

Wallis Island Wallis () is a Polynesian atoll/island in the Pacific Ocean belonging to the French overseas collectivity (''collectivité d'outre-mer'', or ''COM'') of Wallis and Futuna. It lies north of Tonga, northeast of Fiji, east-northeast of the Hoorn ...

, south to northern Australia and north to southern Japan. In Australia it is distributed from Scott Reef in

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

to the Capricorn Islands in

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

Biology

The bugeye dottyback occurs in coastal reef slopes where it inhabits areas of algal growth among boulders down to depths of and it is also found in inshore reefs. It is a secretive and shy species which is most often recorded when

piscicide A piscicide is a chemical substance which is poisonous to fish. The primary use for piscicides is to eliminate a dominant species of fish in a body of water, as the first step in attempting to populate the body of water with a different fish. They ...

s are used to collect specimens.

Name

The genus name compounds the initials of the

Australian Museum The Australian Museum, originally known as the Colonial Museum or Sydney Museum. is a heritage-listed museum at 1 William Street, Sydney, William Street, Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, New South Wales. It is the oldest natural ...

, Sydney, the "AMS" with the

greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word for "fish@, ''ichthys'', ''Amsichthys''. 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 ...

honours Ronald Knight, Sr. of

Manus Manus may refer to: Relating to locations around New Guinea *Manus Island, a Papua New Guinean island in the Admiralty Archipelago ** Manus languages, languages spoken on Manus and islands close by ** Manus Regional Processing Centre, an offshore ...

, Papua New Guinea, who provided hospitality to Gerald R. Allen when he was on a collecting trip in 1982. The location the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wikt:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally associated. In other words, a type is an example that serves to ancho ...

was collected was the Ribbon Reef, part of the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system, composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5655575 Pseudoplesiopinae