| Bathypterois dubius | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Aulopiformes |
| Family: | Ipnopidae |
| Genus: | Bathypterois |
| Species: | B. dubius |
| Binomial name | |
| Bathypterois dubius Vaillant, 1888 | |
Bathypterois dubius, the Mediterranean spiderfish, a lizardfish of the family Ipnopidae, is found in the Eastern Atlantic, as well as the Mediterranean and northwest Atlantic.
The common name "Snoutlet crotchfeeler" was coined by D. E. McAllister in his 1990 book, A List of the Fishes of Canada. [1] McAllister created common names for deep-sea fish, which are unlikely to have day-to-day use, and they subsequently appeared in Encyclopedia of Canadian Fishes (1995) by Brian W. Coad. [2] In a review of Coad's book, Erling Holm criticized some of the deep-sea fish names coined by McAllister, like canopener smoothdream and doormat parkinglotfish, as "unnecessarily complex, easily misspelled, or downright silly" — and wrote that snoutlet crotchfeeler "violates the tenets of good taste". [3] [4] Holm noted that many of the names coined by McAllister did not meet the criteria set by the Committee on Names of Fish. [3]
Like other species in its family, the Mediterranean spiderfish is hermaphroditic. It is solitary in nature and feeds on mysids and copepods. It reaches a length of 20.5 centimetres (8.1 in) SL.
