Bothragonus swanii
species of fish
Bothragonus swanii, the rockhead, deep-pitted poacher or deep-pitted sea-poacher, is a species of fish in the family Agonidae. It was described by Franz Steindachner in 1876, originally in the genus Hypsagonus. It is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean from Alaska to Carmel Bay, California down to depths of 18 metres. It can also inhabit the intertidal zone. Males can reach a maximum total length of 8.9 centimetres.
Cranial pit and hypothesized sound production
Bothragonus swanii has a prominent bowl-shaped cranial pit on the top of its skull, roughly the size of its brain. Researchers hypothesize that the pit is an acoustic organ for communication in the species' noisy intertidal habitat.
The species epithet "swanii" refers to James G. Swan of Port Townsend, Washington. The rockhead spawns nearshore, during the months of January–May in the California Current region. Its diet consists of benthic shrimp and crabs.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bothragonus swanii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.