Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Mummichog
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Taxonomy== The genus name ''[[Fundulus]]'' comes from ''{{lang|la|[[:wikt:fundus|fundus]]}}'', meaning bottom, from the fish's habit of swimming near muddy bottoms. The species name ''heteroclitus'' means irregular or unusual. The [[type specimen]] was first described by [[Carl Linnaeus]] in 1766, from near [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. Other scientific names now considered [[Synonym (taxonomy)|synonyms]] for this species include ''Cobitis heteroclita'', ''Fundulus fasciatus'', ''Fundulus pisculentus'', and ''Fundulus nigrofasciatus''.<ref name="Scott">Scott, W.B., and Crossman, E.J. 1973. Freshwater fishes of Canada. Bulletin 184 of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, Ottawa.</ref> The mummichog belongs to the order [[Cyprinodontiformes]], and the family Fundulidae. There are two [[subspecies]]: ''F. h. heteroclitus'' (Linnaeus, 1766), in the south and ''F. h. macrolepidotus'' (Walbaum, 1792) in the north. As ''F. mudfish'' this species was designated the [[type species]] of ''Fundulus'' when [[Bernard Germain de Lacépède|Lacépède]] created the genus in 1803.<ref name = CofFG>{{Cof record|genid=535|title=''Fundulus''|access-date=24 September 2019}}</ref> The name mummichog is derived from a [[Narragansett people|Narragansett]] term meaning "going in crowds", which reflects the mummichog's strong shoaling tendency.<ref>"Mummichog." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 6 February 2014. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mummichog</ref> Colloquial names include mummy, killie, kelley, chub, salt water minnow, mud minnow, mud dabbler, marsh minnow, brackish water chub, gudgeon, and common killifish. Some of these terms may lead to confusion: the term minnow should be reserved for species of the family [[Cyprinidae]], the mudminnows are members of the family [[Umbridae]], and the name [[gudgeon (fish)|gudgeon]] is used for various bottom-dwelling species of [[Cyprinidae|cyprinid]], [[Eleotridae|eleotrid]], and [[Dartfish|ptereleotrid]] fishes, none of which belongs to the same family as the fundulid mummichog.<ref name="Helfman">Helfman, G.S., Collette, B.B., Facey, D.E., and Boweb, B.W. 2009. The Diversity of Fishes, 2nd ed. Wiley-Blackwell,Oxford.</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)