Vanderhorstia mertensi

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Vanderhorstia mertensi
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Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Gobiiformes
Family: Gobiidae
Genus: Vanderhorstia
Species:
V. mertensi
Binomial name
Vanderhorstia mertensi
Klausewitz, 1974 [2]

Vanderhorstia mertensi, Mertens' shrimp goby or the slender shrimp goby, is a species of ray-finned fish belonging to the family Gobiidae, the gobies. This species is native to the Indo-Pacific region, as well as having colonised the Eastern Mediterranean, probably through the Suez Canal.

Contents

Taxonomy

Vanderhorstia mertensi was first formally described in 1974 by the German ichthyologist Wolfgang Klausewitz with its type locality given as Marsah Murach in the South Sinai Governorate of Egypt in the Gulf of Aqaba, in the northern Red Sea from a depth of 4 metres. [3] The genus Vanderhorstia belongs to the true goby subfamily Gobiinae which is in the faily Gobiidae. [4]

Etymology

Vanderhorstia mertensi belongs to the genus Vanderhorstia, the name of which is an eponym honouring the Dutch-born South African domiciled marine biologist Cornelius van der Horst. The specific name honours the German herpetologist Robert Mertens, the former director of the Naturmuseum Senckenberg in Frankfurt, from whom the author, Klausewitz, learnt about the biological and ecological view of modern systematics and taxonomy. [5]

Distribution and habitat

This species is native to the Red Sea, Japan, Papua New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef. Male individuals can reach a length of 11 cm in total. [6] In 2008, the first specimen was collected in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Gulf of Fethiye, southern Turkey, where it was found on sandy bottoms in the vicinity of beds of sea grass. [7] It is now common in Israel, Turkey and Greece. [8] According to the Mediterranean Science Commission, this species most likely entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.

References

  1. ↑ Larson, H. (2019). "Vanderhorstia mertensi". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2019: e.T47687060A47687111. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  2. ↑ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Vanderhorstia mertensi". FishBase . June 2018 version.
  3. ↑ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Vanderhorstia". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  4. ↑ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Gobiinae". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  5. ↑ Christopher Scharpf (28 March 2025). "Order GOBIIFORMES: Family GOBIIDAE (r-z)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 22 April 2025.
  6. ↑ Lieske, E. y R. Myers, 1994. Collins Pocket Guide. Coral reef fishes. Indo-Pacific & Caribbean including the Red Sea. Harper Collins Publishers, 400 p.
  7. ↑ Murat Bilecenoglu; Mehmet Baki Yokeş & Ahmet Eryigit (2008). "First record of Vanderhorstia mertensi Klausewitz, 1974 (Pisces, Gobiidae) in the Mediterranean Sea". Aquatic Invasions. 3 (4): 475–478. doi: 10.3391/ai.2008.3.4.21 .
  8. ↑ Atlas of Exotic Fishes in the Mediterranean Sea (Vanderhorstia mertensi). 2nd Edition. 2021. 366p. CIESM Publishers, Paris, Monaco. https://ciesm.org/atlas/fishes_2nd_edition/Vanderhorstia_mertensi.pdf
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