''Drepane punctata'', the butterfish, concertinafish, jetto, peppercorn, sickle-fish, silver moonfish, spotted batfish, spotted sicklefish, sicklefish or spotted spadefish, 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 ...

belonging to 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 ...

Drepaneidae ''Drepane'' is a genus of marine and brackish water ray-finned fishes, known commonly as the sicklefishes. It is the only genus in the monotypic percomorph family Drepaneidae. These fish occur in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans, and in the ...

, the sicklefishes. This fish 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 ...

Taxonomy

''Drepane punctata'' was first formally described as ''Chaetodon punctatus'' in the

10th edition of Systema Naturae The 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' (Latin; the English title is ''A General System of Nature'') is a book written by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoologic ...

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

with its type locality given as "Asia". In 1917

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

designated ''C. punctatus'' as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus '' Drepane'' which had been proposed by

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

in 1831. It is one of three species in the genus ''Drepane'', the only genus in the monogeneric family Drepaneidae which is classified in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Moroniformes Moroniformes is an order of ray-finned fishes in the series Percomorpha. Families Moroniformes comprises three families according to the 5th edition of the ''Fishes of the World'': * Moronidae Jordan & Evermann, 1896 * Drepaneidae Gill, 1872 * ...

Description

''Drepane punctata'' has an oval shaped, deeply compressed body which has a depth greater than its

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

. The snout has a straight or concave profile with no scales on the snout, cheeks and

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

. The lower edge of the preoperculum is serrated. It has a fringe of cirrhi on the chin. It has a highly protrusible mouth and forms a ventrally facing tube when extended. There are bands of thin, pointed teeth on the jaws with none on the roof of the mouth. The

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

is supported by between 8 and 10, typically 9, spines and 20 to 22 soft rays while the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

has 3 spines and between 16 and 19 soft rays. The

caudal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

is rounded rounded or nearly truncate in larger adults). The long

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

are sickle-shaped and extend as far as the

caudal peduncle Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

. There is a bump or bony knob between the eyes. The head and body silvery in colour with a 5 to 10 series of black spots arranged in vertical lines on the upper body. The fins are dusky yellow with the dorsal and caudal fins being darker towards their margins and there are 2 or 3 horizontal rows of dark dots, 1 dot each part of the membrane between the soft rays. This species has a maximum published

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 , although is more typical.

Distribution and habitat

''Drepane punctata'' is found in the tropical and temperate Indo-West Pacific from to India east through Indonesia, Philippines and New Guinea, north to Taiwan and Japan and south to northern Australia. It occurs at depths between in coastal waters over sand or mud bottoms in reefs, estuaries and in harbours.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q590354 Drepaneidae Fish described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus