Echidna (fish)

This article is about the moray eel genus EchidnaForster, 1788 and is not to be confused with the monotreme genus EchidnaCuvier, 1797, now known as Tachyglossus Illiger, 1811 or the viper genus EchidnaMerrem, 1820, now known as Bitis Gray, 1842.

Echidna
Snowflake moray (E. nebulosa)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Anguilliformes
Family:	Muraenidae
Subfamily:	Muraeninae
Genus:	Echidna J. R. Forster, 1788 [1]
Species
See text.
Synonyms [2]
Megaderus Rafinesque, 1815 Molarii Richardson, 1848 Poecilophis Kaup, 1856 Leihala D. S. Jordan, 1925

Echidna is a genus of moray eels in the family Muraenidae. ^[3] Species in this genus currently do not form a monophyletic group. ^[4]

Description

Echidna species lack canine teeth. ^[5]

Diet

They generally eat crustaceans. ^[6]

Species

As of 2017 ^[update] , FishBase and WoRMS recognize the following eleven species in Echidna: ^{[3] [7]}

• Echidna amblyodon (Bleeker, 1856) (Sulawesi moray)
• Echidna catenata (Bloch, 1795) (chain moray)
• Echidna delicatula (Kaup, 1856) (mottled moray)
• Echidna leucotaenia L. P. Schultz, 1943 (whiteface moray)
• Echidna nebulosa (J. N. Ahl, 1789) (snowflake moray)
• Echidna nocturna (Cope, 1872) (freckled moray)
• Echidna peli (Kaup, 1856) (pebbletooth moray)
• Echidna polyzona (J. Richardson, 1845) (barred moray)
• Echidna rhodochilus Bleeker, 1863 (pink-lipped moray eel)
• Echidna unicolor L. P. Schultz, 1953 (unicolor moray)
• Echidna xanthospilos (Bleeker, 1859) (New Guinea moray)

In addition to the species listed above, the zebra moray (Gymnomuraena zebra) has sometimes been included in Echidna.

References

1. Forster, Io. Reinholdo (1788). Enchiridion historiae naturali inserviens. Halae: Hemmerde etSchwetschke. p. 81.
2. Böhlke, Eugenia B.; Randall, John E. (2000). "A Review of the Moray eels (Angulliformes: Muraenidae) of the Hawaiian Islands, with Descriptions of Two New Species". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 150: 216. JSTOR   4065071.
3. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Echidna". FishBase . September 2017 version.
4. Reece, Joshua S.; Bowen, Brian W.; Smith, David G.; Larson, Allan (2010-11-01). "Molecular phylogenetics of moray eels (Muraenidae) demonstrates multiple origins of a shell-crushing jaw (Gymnomuraena, Echidna) and multiple colonizations of the Atlantic Ocean" . Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 57 (2): 829–835. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2010.07.013. ISSN   1055-7903.
5. Smith, Margaret M.; Heemstra, Philip C. (1986), "Class Osteichthyes", in Smith, Margaret M.; Heemstra, Phillip C. (eds.), Smiths Sea Fishes (6th ed.), Springer Science & Business Media, p. 166, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-82858-4_13, ISBN   978-3-642-82858-4
6. Arun Kumar, M.; Venu, S.; Padmavati, G. (2016). "First Record of the Pink Lipped Moray Eel, Echidna rhodochilus (Bleeker 1863) (Family: Muraenidae), from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India". International Journal of Oceanography. 2016: 1–4. doi: 10.1155/2016/6098027 .
7. Bailly, N. (2014). Bailly N (ed.). "Echidna Forster, 1788". FishBase . World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 19 September 2017.