Lumpenus longirostris

Lumpenus longirostris, Longsnout Prickleback. Source: Evermann & Goldsborough 1907.
Lumpenus longirostris, Longsnout Prickleback. Source: Evermann & Goldsborough 1907.
FamilyScientific NameAuthorYearCommon Name
StichaeidaeLumpenus longirostrisEvermann & Goldsborough1907Longsnout Prickleback

Lumpenus longirostris

Unique Characteristics: Body elongate, compressed; head long, compressed, interorbital slightly convex; eye large, elongate, median, high; snout long, blunt, and projecting, mouth small, nearly horizontal, lower jaw included; maxillary not nearly reaching eye, reaching halfway from tip of snout to posterior edge of eye; teeth in a single crowded row on each jaw, crowded and more or less in a patch anteriorly, no teeth on vomer or palatines; gill-openings continued forward to below anterior edge of pupil, the membranes then narrowly joined to isthmus.

Dorsal fin beginning immediately above upper end of gill-opening, the spines short, strong, and pun-gent, none of them flexible, the anterior ones very short, less than width of pupil, the fin gradually increasing in height to opposite front of anal, thence decreasing very slowly to posterior end, the longest spine about 1.3 in snout, the third ray from last two-thirds height of longest ray, the tips of the spines naked for about one-quarter of their height; anal with 3 (in most examples 4) strong spines similar to those of dorsal fin, the first half as high as second, which equals third, soft rays all forked and of about equal length, the last 3 free for upper third of their length; caudal rounded, 1.9 in head; ventral short, of 1 short sharp strong spine, equal to perpendicular diameter of eye, and 3 simple rays, the fin 2 in snout; pectoral large, rounded, the middle rays longest, 1.5 in head.

Scales small, smooth, rounded, covering entire body and head, those of head smaller and more closely imbricated (Evermann and Goldsborough 1907).

Similar Species: None

Reference:

Evermann, B. W. and E. L. Goldsborough. 1907. The fishes of Alaska. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries, 1906, 26: 219-360, pls. 14-42. (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15552014#page/259/mode/1up).