Victor Gruschka Springer is Senior Scientist emeritus, Division of Fishes at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He is a specialist in the anatomy, classification, and distribution of fishes, with a special interest in tropical marine shorefishes. He has published numerous scientific studies on these subjects; also, a popular book called "Sharks in Question, the Smithsonian Answer Book" 1989.
Collared wrigglers are perciform fishes in the family Xenisthmidae. They are native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where they are mostly reef-dwelling.
Pseudoplesiops wassi, the fleckfin dottyback or Wass's dottyback, is a species of dottyback fish. It is found associated with coral reefs and other rocky coastal habitats in a large part of the south-western Pacific including the Great Barrier Reef, the Coral Sea, the Caroline Islands, the Bismarck Archipelago, Vanuatu, Fiji, Rotuma, Tonga, Samoa, and the Solomon Islands. The specific name honours the fisheries biologist Richard C. Wass.
The largemouth triplefin, Ucla xenogrammus, is a fish of the family Tripterygiidae and only member of the genus Ucla, found in the Pacific Ocean from Viet Nam, the Philippines, Palau and the Caroline Islands to Papua New Guinea, Australia, and the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Tonga, east to American Samoa and Rapa Iti, at depths of between 2 and 41 metres. Its length is up to about 47 millimetres (1.9 in). The generic name was coined by ichthyologist Richard Heinrich Rosenblatt in his unpublished dissertation of 1959 from the University of California Los Angeles and it is the initials of that institution, it was formally applied by Holleman in 1993.
The Mitchell gudgeon is a species of fish in the family Eleotridae endemic to the Kimberley region of Australia, where it is only known from the Mitchell River system. This species can reach a length of 4 cm (1.6 in). The specific name honours the ichthyologist J. Barry Hutchins of the Western Australian Museum, who collected the type.
Milyeringa is a genus of blind cavefish from the Cape Range and Barrow Island, northwestern Australia. Although traditionally considered to belong to the family Eleotridae, studies show that they represent a distinct and far-separated lineage together with the Typhleotris cavefish from Madagascar, leading some to move them to their own family, Milyeringidae. The generic name is taken from Milyering which is 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Vlamingh Head in the North West Cape of Western Australia, the type locality for Milyeringa veritas.
Ratsirakia legendrei is a species of fish in the family Eleotridae endemic to fresh waters of Madagascar. This species can reach a length of 17 cm (6.7 in). It is the only known member of its genus. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Ratsirakia, the name of which honours Didier Ratsiraka who was President of Madagascar from 1975-1993 and from 1997-2002 while the specific name refers to the French physician Jean Legendre who discovered the species while serving with French colonial troops in Madagascar.
Typhleotris pauliani is a critically endangered species of fish in the family Milyeringidae that is endemic to Madagascar, where it is only known from a few caves and sinkholes in the southwestern portion of the island. This blind cavefish lacks pigmentation and can reach a standard length of 7.1 cm (2.8 in). It feeds on invertebrates and guano. Part of its range receive some protection, but the species is threatened by disturbance from recreational activities and collectors of guano. The specific name honours the French entomologist and former deputy director of the Institut de recherche pour le développement in Madagascar, Renaud Paulian (1913-2003), who collected the type specimens as well as contributing a lot to the knowledge of the biogeography of the western Indian Ocean.
Naso caesius, the grey unicornfish or silverblotched unicornfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Acanthuridae, the surgeonfishes, unicornfishes and tangs. This species occurs in the Indo-Pacific region.
Ecsenius kurti, Kurt's coralblenny, is a species of combtooth blenny in the genus Ecsenius. It is found in coral reefs in the western Pacific ocean; it is endemic to the Cuyo Islands of the Philippines. It can reach a maximum length of 3.5 centimetres. Blennies in this species feed primarily off of plants, including benthic algae and weeds. The specific name honours Kurt A. Bruwelheide, who was a museum specialist in the Division of Fishes of the National Museum of Natural History, for his work on the early part Springer's revision of the genus Ecsenius and who photographed many of the types of the species Springer described.
Stanulus talboti, Talbot's blenny, is a species of combtooth blenny found in coral reefs in the western Pacific Ocean. This species feeds primarily on plants, including benthic algae and weeds. This species can reach 4.8 cm (1.9 in) in TL. This fish is also found in the aquarium trade.
The arrow wriggler, also known as Tyson's wriggler, is a species of fish in the monotypic genus Tyson of the Xenisthmidae (wriggler) family, which is regarded as a synonymous with the Eleotridae, Tyson's wriggler was discovered in 1983. It moves by wriggling, like other wrigglers. The genus is named for American ichthyologist Tyson R. Roberts; the specific epithet belos is Greek for "arrow". The arrow wriggler has been recorded from scattered localities in the West Pacific Ocean including Flores in Indonesia, the Trobriand Islands, the Great Barrier Reef, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji. It is found at depths ranging from is 10 to 30 metres.
Dorothea's wriggler, Allomicrodesmus dorotheae, is a species of fish in the monotypic genus Allomicrodesmus which is regarded by some authorities as being in the family Xenisthmidae, the wriggler family, but in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World this is treated as a synonym of the family Eleotridae, sleeper gobies. It is 5 cm (2.0 in) in length. It is known from just two specimens, one from the Great Barrier Reef and the other from the Marshall Islands. It has been collected from a depth of around 10 m (33 ft) in a channel in a reef. The specific name honours Dorothea Bowers Schultz, the wife of Leonard Peter Schultz, who illustrated the monograph in which this species is described, although not this species.
Hudson's triplefin is a species of triplefin blenny in the genus Helcogramma. It was described by David Starr Jordan and Alvin Seale in 1906, the specific name honouring the illustrator of their monograph on Samoan fishes, R.L. Hudson. This species is found in the western Pacific Ocean where it has been recorded from the Izu Islands, Ryukyu Islands, Savo Island, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji, and Samoa.
Paraxenisthmus springeri is a species of fish in the genus Paraxenisthmus of the Xenisthmidae (wriggler) family, which is regarded as a synonymous with the Eleotridae, from the West Pacific. Its specific name honours the American ichthyologist Victor G. Springer of the U.S. National Museum for his contributions to fish systematics.
John Ernest "Jack" Randall was an American ichthyologist and a leading authority on coral reef fishes. Randall described over 800 species and authored 11 books and over 900 scientific papers and popular articles. He spent most of his career working in Hawaii. He died in April 2020 at the age of 95.
Milyeringa justitia, commonly known as the Barrow cave gudgeon, is a species of fish in the family Milyeringidae endemic to groundwater systems (aquifers) of Barrow Island, around 50 km off the Pilbara coast in Western Australia. This troglobitic species has a pale body, lacking in pigment, and it is eyeless and blind, using sensory papillae located on the head and body to allow it to feed and move around in total darkness. The specific name justitia is Latin for "justice" and was given by the describers to complement the specific name of Milyeringa veritas which means "truth" in the hope that “As truth and justice are supposed to go together, we name this species justitia, from the Latin for justice, in the hope that justice helps the species to survive on Barrow Island, which has been an oilfield since 1967 and is most recently the site of the Gorgon Gas Hub development.” Very little is known about M. justitia as between 2002 and 2013 only six specimens were collected but its biology is assumed to be similar to that of M. veritas.
Caecieleotris morrisi, also known as the Oaxaca cave sleeper is a species of troglobitic fish in the family Eleotridae found in a single cave system beneath Presa Miguel Alemán reservoir, northern State of Oaxaca in Mexico. This species is the only member of its genus.
Paraxenisthmus cerberusi is a species of fish in the genus Paraxenisthmus of the Xenisthmidae (wriggler) family, which is regarded as a synonymous with the Eleotridae, from Palau and Fiji in the West Pacific. Its specific name refers to Cerberus, the three-headed dog which guards the entrance to Hades in Greek mythology, given to this species because of its relatively large number of teeth and in reference to the black juveniles and the red and black adults, the colours of which are associated with Hell in Christianity. This small fish was found in a drop-off which had caves and ledges with shelves and slopes covered in silt and sand. The area had growths of hydroids, sea fans, a range of hard corals and some Halimeda.
Pinjalo lewisi, the slender pinjalo or red pinjalo, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is found in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans.
