''Xiphasia matsubarai'', the Japanese snake blenny, 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 ...

found in the western

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five 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 bounded by the cont ...

and

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

oceans just extending into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. This species can be found at depths ranging from the surface to . This species reaches in SL. This species feeds primarily on

bony fish Osteichthyes ( ; ), also known as osteichthyans or commonly referred to as the bony fish, is a Biodiversity, diverse clade of vertebrate animals that have endoskeletons primarily composed of bone tissue. They can be contrasted with the Chondricht ...

, rising to the surface at night to feed. It can also be found in the

aquarium An aquarium (: aquariums or aquaria) is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. fishkeeping, Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aquati ...

trade.

Description

''Xiphasia matsubarai'' has an elongated body that resembles an eel, and has a dorsal fin that covers the whole length of the body. They have gray-brown stripes that cover the length of their bodies starting at the head. The head is small and it is rounded anteriorly. The eyes are slightly smaller and located near the lateral sides of the head. It does not have any scales. They have a single row of incisor teeth and large canines. The bottom canines are significantly longer than the canines in the upper jaw. The article identified distinct morphological characteristics and sequence analysis that helped identify ''X. matsubarai''. Smith-Vanzi and Shen made important comparisons between the ''X. matsubarai'' and the '' X. setifer'', which included fin length and color. This supported the initial discovery of the snake blenny.

Name

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 the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Kiyomatsu Matsubara was a Japanese people, Japanese marine biologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Born Kiyomatsu Sakamoto in Hyogo Prefecture, Kiyomatsu Matsubara was the first professor of the Department of Fisheries of the University of Kyoto and is consider ...

(1907-1968) of

Kyoto University , or , is a National university, national research university in Kyoto, Japan. Founded in 1897, it is one of the former Imperial Universities and the second oldest university in Japan. The university has ten undergraduate faculties, eighteen gra ...

who was a colleague of the two authors and who named this species in his honour in gratitude for the kindness he had shown them.

References

* Okada, Y. and K. Suzuki 1952 (30 Nov.) A new blennoid fish from the Sea of Japan. ''Report of Faculty of Fisheries Prefectural University of Mie'' v. 1 (no. 2): 75-77.'' * Yi, M., Zhao, C., Su, X. et al. J. Ocean. Limnol. (2018) 36: 1401. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-018-7105-x {{Taxonbar, from=Q3753688 matsubarai Fish described in 1952