The sphinx blenny (''Aidablennius sphynx'') is a species of

combtooth blenny Combtooth blennies are blenniiformids; percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Combtooth blennies are found in tropic ...

, and the only species in the genus ''Aidablennius''. It was described by Achille Valenciennes in 1836, originally under the genus ''

Blennius ''Blennius'' is a Genus of combtooth blenny in the family Blenniidae. Its members include ''Blennius ocellaris'', the Butterfly Blenny. Species There are currently two recognized species in this genus: *'' Blennius normani'' Poll, 1949 *'' B ...

'',Cuvier, G. and A. Valenciennes, 1836 (July)

ef. 1005 EF or ef may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Ef (band), a post-rock band from Sweden * '' Ef: A Fairy Tale of the Two.'', a Japanese adult visual novel series by Minori, or its anime adaptations Businesses and organizations * Eagle Forum, an ...

''Histoire naturelle des poissons.'' Tome onzième. Livre treizième. De la famille des Mugiloïdes. Livre quatorzième. De la famille des Gobioïdes. Histoire naturelle des poissons v. 11: i-xx + 1-506 + 2 pp., Pls. 307-343. and was later reassigned under "''Aidablennius''" by

Gilbert Percy Whitley Gilbert Percy Whitley (9 June 1903 – 18 July 1975) was a British-born Australian ichthyologist and malacologist who was Curator of Fishes at the Australian Museum in Sydney for about 40 years. He was born at Swaythling, Southampton, England ...

in 1947. It is a subtropical blenny known from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

, in the eastern

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

, and also from the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on th ...

and

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, ...

s.''Aidablennius sphynx''
at www.fishbase.org. Sphinx blennies inhabit shallow, rocky waters in the

littoral zone The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal ...

, with sunlight exposure. They 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 ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms. The name is an informal term for a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from ...

weed A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...

s and

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

. Sphinx blennies can measure up to long in

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

Reproduction

In mating, the blennies form distinct pairs, and the females lay up to 7000 eggs in a sitting, which are then guarded in burrows by the males. Males are known to

cannibalize Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...

dead eggs to prevent infection spread amongst the healthy eggs, although in smaller broods they have also been reported consuming living eggs. It is believed that this is due to limited feeding opportunities for the males during breeding, as a result of their restriction to the nests.

FishBase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

considers the blennies to be of Low Vulnerability, with a reproductive doubling time of less than 15 months.

References

External links

''Aidablennius sphynx''
at www.fishwise.co.za * Salarinae Fish of Europe Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of the Black Sea Fish of the Mediterranean Sea Fish described in 1836 Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes {{Blenniidae-stub