''Pholis'' is a

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 ...

of marine

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 ...

Pholidae ''Pholidae'' is a Family (biology), family of marine ray-finned fishes, known as gunnels, in the Scorpaeniformes, scorpaeniform suborder Zoarcoidei. These are fishes of the littoral zone and are mainly found in North Pacific Ocean, with two speci ...

, the gunnels. These fishes are found in shallow coastal waters of the North Pacific, Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans.

Taxonomy

''Pholis'' was first proposed as a genus in 1777 by the Italian

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinisation of names, Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italians, Italian physician and natural history, naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first ...

. 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 ...

was later designated to be ''Blennius gunnellus'', which Linnaeus had described in 1758 in the 10th edition of the ''

Systema Naturae ' (originally in Latin written ' with the Orthographic ligature, ligature æ) is one of the major works of the Sweden, Swedish botanist, zoologist and physician Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) and introduced the Linnaean taxonomy. Although the syste ...

''. The genus is the only genus in the

monotypic 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 "unisp ...

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 ...

Pholinae, one of two subfamilies in the family Pholidae. The genus name ''Pholis'' is an

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

name for a fish that hides in a hole, the name dating at least as far back in history to

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

Species

''Pholis'' contains 11 species:

Characteristics

Philos species have the elongate, compressed bodies of other gunnels. They differ on that there is no interorbital pore and that the head lacks scales or has small scales which are only present in larger adults. These fishes vary in 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 ...

varying from in ''P. nea'' and in ''P. picta''.

Distribution, habitat and biology

''Pholis'' gunnels are predominantly found in the temperate and boreal wasters of the North Pacific Ocean but ''P. fasciatus'' and ''P. gunnellus'' are found in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans, the only gunnels to occur outside the Pacific Ocean. These fishes are found in rocky areas in the intertidal zone and in the shallow waters below the low tide mark. They feed on invertebrates and fish eggs. They 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 ...

, laying eggs in a large mass which is guarded.

References

{{Authority control Pholidae Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli