Description
The psychedelic frogfish was first described in 2009 by Pietsch, Arnold, and Hall in the scientific journal Copeia, where they described it as having "a remarkable pigment pattern of white swirling stripes", hence their use of the term psychedelic. The psychedelic frogfish has been known to reach a length of 15 centimetres (5.9 in). The skin of the psychedelic frogfish is flabby and fleshy, like other frogfishes. As a member of the order Lophiiformes, it has no scales. It covers the dorsal and ventral fins of the fish, which aid in camouflaging the fish. The skin may be covered in protective mucus.
The psychedelic frogfish is different from many other anglerfishes in that it has a tiny luring appendage on its forehead. It has a relatively flat face with a mouth smaller than that of most anglerfishes.
The coloring of the skin is a pattern of yellowish brown or peach colored stripes. This pattern covers the entire fish, including its fins, except for the hidden skin that is exposed when the lips are stretched forward, which is pale in color. At the margins, the skin can appear to be turquoise, although the exact nature of this coloration is unclear. Unlike some frogfishes, the psychedelic frogfish's color never changes, even if the habitat changes, and its offspring maintain that color as well. The fingerprint pattern, like the stripes on a zebra or the spots on a humpback whale's tail, is unique to each individual. This allows researchers to easily track multiple psychedelic frogfish in the wild and still identify them from any angle.
The face of the psychedelic frogfish is flattened; the cheeks and chin of the fish are extended laterally, much like the sides of a collapsible paper orb. The fish is able to both expand its head and extend its mouth forward, thus expanding the head and giving it a more elongated shape more often seen in large fish. The fish employs this behavior periodically when not feeding, as though yawning.
Read more about this topic: Psychedelic Frogfish
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“Once a child has demonstrated his capacity for independent functioning in any area, his lapses into dependent behavior, even though temporary, make the mother feel that she is being taken advantage of....What only yesterday was a description of the child’s stage in life has become an indictment, a judgment.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“God damnit, why must all those journalists be such sticklers for detail? Why, they’d hold you to an accurate description of the first time you ever made love, expecting you to remember the color of the room and the shape of the windows.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)