Old wife

{{Short description|Species of ray-finned fish}} {{For|the game fish native to the western Atlantic|Trachinotus goodei}} {{Speciesbox | fossil_range = | name = ''Enoplosus armatus'' | image = Enoplosus armatus.jpg | image_caption = Old wife, ''Enoplosus armatus'' | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="IUCN">{{cite iucn |author=Holleman, W. |author2=Fennessy, S. |author3=Russell, B. |year=2020 |title=''Enoplosus armatus'' |volume=2020 |article-number=e.T143616007A143616622 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T143616007A143616622.en |access-date=23 July 2020}}</ref> | grandparent_authority = T. N. Gill, 1893<ref name = VDLEF>{{cite journal | author1 = Richard van der Laan | author2 = William N. Eschmeyer | author3 = Ronald Fricke | name-list-style = amp |year=2014 | title = Family-group names of Recent fishes | url = https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.3882.1.1/10480 | journal = Zootaxa | volume = 3882 | issue =2 | pages = 001–230| doi = 10.11646/zootaxa.3882.1.1 | pmid = 25543675 | doi-access = free }}</ref> | parent_authority = Lacépède, 1802<ref name = CofF>{{Cof record|genid=517|title=''Enoplosus''|access-date=16 May 2020}}</ref> | display_parents = 3 | taxon = Enoplosus armatus | authority = (J. White, 1790) | synonyms = * ''Chaetodon armatus'' <small>J. White, 1790</small> | synonyms_ref = <ref name = Fishbase>{{FishBase|Enoplosus|armatus|month=December|year=2019}}</ref> }}

'''''Enoplosus armatus''''', commonly referred to as the '''old wife''' (plural: old wives), is a species of centrarchiform ray-finned fish endemic to the temperate coastal waters of Australia.<ref name="AM"/> It is the only genus and species in the family '''Enoplosidae'''.<ref name = Nelson5>{{cite book |title=Fishes of the World |edition=5th |author1=J. S. Nelson |author2=T. C. Grande |author3=M. V. H. Wilson |year=2016 |pages=442–443 |publisher=Wiley |isbn= 978-1-118-34233-6 |url=https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ }}</ref>

{{multi image|align=left|direction=vertical |image1=Enoplosus armatus 1.jpg |caption1=Old wives are commonly found in pairs or large schools.<ref>[http://www.reefwatchvic.asn.au/maps/old_wife_fc.htm Old Wife] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304102313/http://www.reefwatchvic.asn.au/maps/old_wife_fc.htm |date=2016-03-04 }}, ''Reef Watch Victoria''. (Divers' monitoring and conservation project.)</ref> |image2=Enoplosus armatus 2.jpg |caption2=The second dorsal fin is longer and sickle-shaped. }} It has a deep and compressed body and concave forehead. These features are characteristic of typical butterflyfishes.<ref>"Most [butterflyfish, angelfish and surgeonfish] have thin, oval or disk-shaped bodies. They typically have bright colors and patterns. Butterflyfish are usually round, small and have concave foreheads. They often have long snouts for feeding from crevices." AWARE-Fish Identification, Adventures in Diving Manual, PADI (2010).</ref> However, the old wife is easily distinguished by its silver-and-black, vertical, zebra-striped coloration, and by its two prominent dorsal fins. The second dorsal fin is very long and sickle-shaped. The fish grows up to 50 cm long.

Its dorsal fins have bony, knife-like spines.<ref name=scubadoctor>Carl Edmonds, ''Dangerous marine creatures'', 1989. "Although it has been described as venomous, this apparently is of a variable nature as many lacerations from the knife-like dorsal spines have been known by this author to be relatively painless. It appears as if the pain and bleeding may be inversely related, ..." p.70</ref> These have no obvious venom groove nor gland.<ref>Smith and Wheeler, [http://research.amnh.org/scicomp/pdfs/wheeler/Smith%26Wheeler2006.pdf ''Venom Evolution Widespread in Fishes''], Journal of Heredity v.97 i.3 pp.206-217 (2006).</ref> Nonetheless, the spines are widely considered to inflict a painful venom.<ref name="AM"/>

The name "old wife" refers to the sound it makes when caught, caused by it grinding its teeth.<ref name ="AM">[http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/earmatus.htm Old Wife], The Australian Museum.</ref><ref name="Morrison" /> Other vernacular names have included "bastard dory", "zebra-fish" (also used for ''Girella zebra''), and "double scalare".<ref name="FishBase">{{cite web|url=http://www.fishbase.org/comnames/CommonNamesList.php?ID=4341&GenusName=Enoplosus&SpeciesName=armatus&StockCode=4527|title=Common Names of ''Enoplosus armatus''|last=Agustin |first=Liza Q.|display-authors=etal |date=13 July 2007|work=Common name summary|publisher=FishBase|access-date= 3 January 2009}}</ref> It has a similar range and appearance to the Moonlighter (''Tilodon sexfasciatus'').<ref>[http://www.divearound.com.au/fish/Moonlighter/564 Moonlighter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120531051458/http://www.divearound.com.au/fish/Moonlighter/564 |date=2012-05-31 }}, Dive Around. (Guide to marine life.)</ref>

==History== The old wife was originally classified in the genus ''Chaetodon'' (with the typical butterflyfishes), but it is now classified as the sole modern species of its own family Enoplosidae and genus ''Enoplosus''. Some fossils have also been added to the genus.

[[File:Pungent chaetodon John White (detail).jpg|thumb|right|''The Pungent Chaetodon'' illustration accompanying the original 1790 description of ''Chaetodon'' (now ''Enoplosus'') ''armatus'' in John White's voyage journal.<ref name="white">White, J. 1790, ''Journal of a voyage to New South Wales'' with 65 plates of nondescript animals, birds, lizards, serpents, curious cones of trees and other natural productions.: Pl. 39. transcription at [http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301531h.html Gutenberg]</ref> Attributed to convict artist Thomas Watling.]] The first description of the species, one of the earliest for any Australian fish, was in 1790 by John White in his ''Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales''<ref name ="Morrison">{{cite book|last=Morrison|first=Sue|author2=Storrie, Ann|title=Wonders of Western Waters|publisher=Department of Conservation and Land Management|location=Como, Western Australia|year=1999|page=119|isbn=0-7309-6894-4}}</ref> though some sources give George Shaw (who assisted White in the preparation of his manuscript) as the species authority.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://research.calacademy.org/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fresearcharchive.calacademy.org%2Fresearch%2Fichthyology%2Fcatalog%2Ffishcatget.asp&tbl=species&spid=38950 |title=CAS - Catalog of Fishes | Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability |access-date=2019-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140305190517/http://research.calacademy.org/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fresearcharchive.calacademy.org%2Fresearch%2Fichthyology%2Fcatalog%2Ffishcatget.asp |archive-date=2014-03-05 }}</ref> White originally named it the long-spined chaetodon (''Chætodon armatus'') and described it as follows:<ref name="white"/> {{blockquote|''Whitish Chaetodon, with seven black stripes on the body. Six spines on the dorsal fin, the third very long. This appears to be a new and very elegant species of the genus ''Chaetodon''. The total length of the specimen was not more than four inches. The colour a silvery white, darker, and of a bluish tinge on the back; the transverse fasciae, or bands, of a deep black; the fins and tail of a pale brown. The third ray or spine of the first dorsal fin is much longer than the rest.''}}

The species was reclassified by Lacépède into its own genus (named from "weapon" in Greek to again reflect the long spines), and was moved by Cuvier from Chaetodontidae into its own separate family within Percoidei.<ref name="agassiz">L. Agassiz. 1836. Recherches Sur Les Poissons Fossiles. Tome IV (livr. 6). Imprimerie de Petitpierre, Neuchatel 53-108 [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/23693#page/85/mode/1up]</ref>

In 1836, Agassiz identified closely related fossils at Monte Bolca (an important fossil site in Europe) as ''Enoplosus pygopterus'' (named for its smaller fins).<ref name="agassiz"/><ref>Pygon+pteron. George Roberts, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=sSNaAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA55 An etymological and explanatory dictionary of the terms and language of geology]''</ref> These exceptionally well-preserved fossils had a very similar body plan, and even a similar zebra pattern of colouring.<ref name="fossilcolour">[http://www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/fishcolour.html The 'Lost Language' of Fishes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120318233324/http://www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/fishcolour.html|date=2012-03-18}} (with captioned [http://www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/fishcolour/imagegallery.html images] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110513130702/http://www.coralcoe.org.au/news_stories/fishcolour/imagegallery.html|date=2011-05-13}}), Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Colouring patterns demonstrated to have been preserved in fish (especially old wives) from at least 50 mya.</ref> However, more recent studies have recovered this species as actually being an early cardinalfish, moved to its own genus, ''Eosphaeramia''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bannikov |first=Alexandre F. |date=2008 |title=REVISION OF SOME EOCENE FISHES FROM BOLCA, NORTHERN ITALY, PREVIOUSLY CLASSIFIED WITH THE APOGONIDAE AND ENOPLOSIDAE (PERCIFORMES) |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/A-Bannikov/publication/266087958_REVISION_OF_SOME_EOCENE_FISHES_FROM_BOLCA_NORTHERN_ITALY_PREVIOUSLY_CLASSIFIED_WITH_THE_APOGONIDAE_AND_ENOPLOSIDAE_PERCIFORMES/links/54253c3d0cf238c6ea73f2c6/REVISION-OF-SOME-EOCENE-FISHES-FROM-BOLCA-NORTHERN-ITALY-PREVIOUSLY-CLASSIFIED-WITH-THE-APOGONIDAE-AND-ENOPLOSIDAE-PERCIFORMES.pdf |journal=Studi e ricerche sui giacimenti terziari di Bolca |volume=12 |pages=65-76}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}} * {{FishBase family | family = Enoplosidae | month = January | year = 2006}} * {{FishBase | genus = Enoplosus | species = armatus | month = January | year = 2006}} * {{ITIS | id = 169695 | taxon = ''Enoplosus armatus'' | accessdate = 27 March 2006}}

==External links== {{Commons-inline}} {{Wikispecies-inline}}

Category:Centrarchiformes Category:Taxa named by John White (surgeon) Category:Fish described in 1790