This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Stickleback is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
| Sticklebacks | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus
|
||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Genera | ||||||||||
|
Apeltes |
.gif)
Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
Faroese stamp issued: 7 Feb 1994
Artist: Astrid Andreasen
The Gasterosteidae are a family of fish including the sticklebacks. FishBase currently recognises sixteen species in the family, grouped in five genera. However several of the species have a number of recognised subspecies, and the taxonomy of the family is thought to be in need of revision. Although some authorities give the common name of the family as "sticklebacks and tube-snouts", the tube-snouts are currently classified in the related family Aulorhynchidae.
The family includes the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus aculeatus, common in Northern Temperate Climates around the world including Europe, Alaska, and Japan and colloquially known in United Kingdom as the "tiddler", or "sprick".[1] Niko Tinbergen's studies of the behaviour of this fish were important in the early development of ethology as an example of a fixed action pattern.
Species
- Genus Apeltes Mayer, 1956.
- Gasterosteus aculeatus
- Gasterosteus microcephalus Girard, 1854.
- Blackspotted stickleback, Gasterosteus wheatlandi Putnam, 1867.
- Genus Pungitius
- Pungitius hellenicus Stephanidis, 1971.
- Pungitius kaibarae (Tanaka, 1915).
- Smoothtail ninespine stickleback, Pungitius laevis (Cuvier, 1829).
- Southern ninespine stickleback, Pungitius platygaster (Kessler, 1859).
- Ninespine stickleback, Pungitius pungitius (Linnaeus, 1758).
- Amur stickleback, Pungitius sinensis (Guichenot, 1869).
- Sakhalin stickleback, Pungitius tymensis (Nikolskii, 1889).
- Genus Spinachia
- Sea stickleback, Spinachia spinachia (Linnaeus, 1758).
One unusual features of sticklebacks is that they have no scales, although some species have bony armour plates. They are closely related to pipefish and seahorses.
In Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher, the title character catches a stickleback, only to regret his catch and incur the laughter of the tiny fish in his pond.
References
- "Gasterosteidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. February 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 5 July 2008, at 11:51.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Stickleback".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.