Wavy Lined Blenny

Oviparous, distinct pairing (Ref. 205).

Dorsal spines (total): 13; Dorsal soft rays (total): 16 - 17; Analspines: 2; Analsoft rays: 17 - 19

Inhabits surf-swept reef margins.

Adults inhabit exposed shallow reef flats in the intertidal zone (Ref. 90102). Also found in surge reef margins (Ref. 1602). Oviparous. Eggs are demersal and adhesive (Ref. 205), and are attached to the substrate via a filamentous, adhesive pad or pedestal (Ref. 94114). Larvae are planktonic, often found in shallow, coastal waters (Ref. 94114).

aquarium: commercial

Entomacrodus decussatus (Bleeker)

Salarias kikaiensis Aoyagi (1954) is a junior synonym of E. decussatus that I missed in my Entomacrodus revision (Springer, 1967). Although the location of the holotype is unknown, Aoyagi’s illustration of the species is adequate for identification. The type-locality of S. kikaiensis, Kikai Island, Riu Kiu Islands, represents a northward range entension for E. decussatus, which I previously reported only from as far north as the Philippine Islands (Springer, 1967, fig. 5). There are also a considerable number of uncataloged USNM specimens of E. decussatus from Taiwan and Okinawa (also Riu Kiu Islands, but south of Kikai).

Seven specimens of E. decussatus (AMS I.11810–12, 6 specimens, 46.5–96.0 mm SL; AMS I.11972, 129 mm SL) from Murray Island, Torres Strait, represent a new locality record of interest for the species. Murray Island is about midway in the wide distribution gap between the eastern and western populations of E. decussatus (Springer, 1967, fig. 5). The island also indicates the possible pathway by which the Pacific Ocean populations of E. decussatus invaded western Australia (Indian Ocean). E. decussatus is otherwise known only from the Pacific Ocean (but has not yet been reported from northern or eastern Australia).

Entomacrodus epalzeocheilus (Bleeker) E. niuafoouensis (Fowler) and E. randalli Springer

Springer (1967) considered E. epalzeocheilus to be an Indian Ocean species with an extralimital population at Samoa. Its closest relative, E. niuafoouensis, was considered to be a western Pacific, peripherally distributed species with an extralimital population at Madagascar. I proposed that the extralimital populations of both species were either relicts from when the species were more widespread or represented populations of the dominant species in each area (Pacific, Indian Ocean) that were convergent upon the species in the other area. Little alteration of either species would be necessary to confuse it with the other. The main character for separating the two species was the presence of palmate nuchal cirri in E. epalzeocheilus and simple nuchal cirri in E. niuafoouensis. Secondary characters, with broad overlap, were numbers of lip crenulae and gill-rakers.

In 1968, I collected in southwestern Taiwan, an island geographically intermediate between the areas from which I reported the main distributions of E. epalzeocheilus and E. niuafoouensis. In each of two collections I obtained specimens of both species, based on the nuchal cirrus characters (one E. niuafoouensis, USNM 206394, 88.7 mm SL, and two E. epalzeocheilus, USNM 206392, 75.0–85.8 mm SL in one collection, and three E. niuafoouensis, USNM 206391, 44.6–53.5 mm SL, and six E. epalzeocheilus, USNM 206390, 68.7–87.3 mm SL, in the other). Besides nuchal cirri and gill-rakers, there were no noticeable differences by which the specimens could be separated. The four specimens of E. niuafoouensis had 25, 22, 22, and 17 gill-rakers; of the eight E. epalzeocheilus, five had 18 gill-rakers and three had 19.

One might expect that two closely related species would be most distinct in areas where they occur together. Apparently this is not the case with these two species, which are no more distinguishable when their Taiwan populations are compared than when their allopatric populations are compared (except for the extralimital population of E. niuafoouensis at Madagascar, which has very long orbital cirri). It is quite possible that the two species are really one and that the nuchal cirri differences separating them are merely indications of simple genetic dominance where the homozygous dominant and heterozygous allelic conditions produce one type nuchal cirrus and the homozygous recessive condition, another. In this scheme the supposed extralimital population of each type would merely represent a simple mutant of the dominant population in each area that had become established at a highly restricted locality. The genes controlling the numbers of gill-rakers are possibly linked to those controlling the manifestation of the nuchal cirri.

Smith (1966) reported Entomacrodus epalzeocheilos (sic) from Zululand, the only record for the African coast.

Springer (1967) believed that the Marquesas Island endemic Entomacrodus randalli and E. niuafoouensis were derived from the same ancestral species. E. randalli was distinguished from E. niuafoouensis in having a single pore before each anterior nostril and spots on the upper lip, whereas E. niuafoouensis had two or more pores before each anterior nostril and stripes on the upper lip. Recent collections of E. niuafoouensis from Pitcairn Island (BPBM uncataloged, 7 adults, 32.2–91.0 mm SL, and several tentatively identified young, 18.5–22.8 mm SL) and Henderson Island (BPBM uncataloged, 2 adults 64.0–80.9 mm SL) indicate that specimens from these islands typically have only one pore before each nostril. Hence, only the color pattern of the upper lip serves to distinguish these two species at the easternmost extremity of their range.

The Pitcairn and Henderson island specimens of E. niuafoouensis will key to the couplet separating E. randalli from E. sealei (see Springer, 1967:35). The lip stripes of E. niuafoouensis will serve to distinguish that species from both E. randalli and the few aberrant specimens of E. sealei, for which this couplet was meant to accommodate (see Note in Springer, 1967:35).

分布於太平洋區，由泰國至社曾群島，北至日本，南至新加勒多尼亞及東加等。台灣分布於東部、南部、北部、小琉球、綠島及蘭嶼等海域。

小型魚類，僅具學術研究價值。

體延長形，稍側扁，似圓柱狀；頭鈍短。頭頂無冠膜；鼻鬚掌狀分支；眼上鬚羽狀分支；頸鬚單一不分支。上唇全具鋸齒緣。齒骨具犬齒。D. XII-XIII, 16-17； A. II, 17-18； P. 14；V. I, 4。背鰭具深缺刻，最後一棘小，背鰭與尾柄相連，臀鰭不與尾柄相連，雌魚臀鰭被埋入皮內；腹鰭最後軟條極小，幼魚不存在；尾鰭鰭條分叉。體側具不規則縱紋及橢圓形淡斑，形成6條不明顯的橫紋；背鰭、臀鰭和尾鰭皆具點帶紋；頭部具黑褐點。

主要棲息於珊瑚礁的浪拂區緣，以藻類、碎屑和小型無脊椎動物為食。