Echiodon drummondii | |
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Drawing from A History of the Fishes of the British Islands (1877) | |
Scientific classification
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Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Actinopterygii |
Order: | Ophidiiformes |
Family: | Carapidae |
Genus: | Echiodon |
Species: | E. drummondii
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Binomial name | |
Echiodon drummondii (
Thompson, 1837)
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Synonyms [2] | |
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Echiodon drummondii, sometimes called Drummond's echiodon or Drummond's pearlfish, [3] and in Ireland simply called the pearlfish, [4] is a species of fish in the family Carapidae (pearlfish). [5] [6]
It is named for James Lawson Drummond, who collected the holotype at Carnlough, Ireland in 1836. [4] [7]
Echiodon drummondii is reddish in colour with a silvery abdomen, operculum and iris and dark markings on the head. [8] It has an eel-like body, up to 30 cm (1 ft) in length, making it among the largest of the family. [9] Its eyes are large, and lateral line is very faint.
Echiodon drummondii is bathydemersal, living at depths of 52–403 m (171–1,322 ft) in the North Sea and the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland; [8] it has also been recorded off Iceland and the Azores. [10]
Echiodon drummondii can be free-living and feeds on small invertebrates, fish and bottom-dwellers. [8] It is also known to live inside sea cucumbers; the cucumber opens its anus to breathe in, and the pearlfish swims in. [11] [4] Eggs have been discovered in the seabed off County Kerry. [12]
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