Cirripectes heemstraorum

Cirripectes heemstraorum, the yellowtail blenny, is a species of combtooth blenny from the family Blenniidae. It is found in the Indian Ocean where it is known from three South African specimens and an Indonesian specimen.[1] It is distinguished from its congeners by the nape having an extensive black flap on both sides of its neck; 10-13 cirri which are found between the neck flaps; an entire dorsal fin; 5-6 cirri above the eye, 6-8 cirri on the noes; the males have small dark spots on their body towards the tail which merge to form short black stripes on caudal peduncle, in life the females have a brilliant yellow caudal fin while in the males only the outer half of the tail is bright yellow.[3]

Cirripectes heemstraorum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Blenniiformes
Family: Blenniidae
Genus: Cirripectes
Species:
C. heemstraorum
Binomial name
Cirripectes heemstraorum
Williams, 2010[2]

The specific name honours the South African ichthyologists Phillip C. Heemstra and Elaine Heemstra both of the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. They collected all the known South African specimens of this species and took a photograph of a specimen which showed its life colours.[4] The type were collected near Cape Vidal in KwaZulu Natal from a newly created artificial reef and the parental source of the colonisers on this reef is unknown.[2] It is thought that the natural habitat of this blenny is in the vicinity of shores or reefs which are swept by high energy waves and are prone to fast currents.[1]

References
  1. Williams, J.T. (2014). "Cirripectes heemstraorum". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2014: e.T199651A46239134. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2014-3.RLTS.T199651A46239134.en.
  2. Jeffery T.Williams (2010). "A new species of blenny, Cirripectes heemstraorum, from Cape Vidal, South Africa (Family Blenniidae)". Smithiana, Publications in Aquatic Biodiversity, Bulletin. 12: 3–7.
  3. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2018). "Cirripectes heemstraorum" in FishBase. October 2018 version.
  4. Christopher Scharpf; Kenneth J. Lazara (26 October 2018). "Order BLENNIIFORMES: Family BLENNIIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 2 March 2019.


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