Dactylopterus volitans

Flying gurnard
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Scorpaeniformes
Family:	Dactylopteridae
Genus:	Dactylopterus Lacépède, 1801
Species:	D. volitans
Binomial name
Dactylopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Callionymus pelagicus Rafinesque, 1818 Cephalacanthus spinarella (Linnaeus, 1758) Cephalacanthus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758) Dactilopterus volitans (Linnaeus, 1758) Dactylopterus blochii Swainson, 1839 Dactylopterus communis Owen, 1853 Dactylopterus fasciatus Swainson, 1839 Dactylopterus occidentalis Swainson, 1839 Dactylopterus spinarella (Linnaeus, 1758) Dactylopterus tentaculatus Swainson, 1839 Dactylopterus vulgaris Steindachner, 1867 Gasterosteus spinarella Linnaeus, 1758 Gonocephalus macrocephalus Gronow, 1854 Polynemus sexradiatus Mitchill, 1818 Trigla fasciata Bloch & Schneider, 1801 Trigla volitans Linnaeus, 1758

The flying gurnard, Dactylopterus volitans, is a fish of tropical to warm temperate waters on both sides of the Atlantic, found as far north as New Jersey and south as Brazil, and from the English Channel to Angola.

As of August 2009, The flying gurnard has been seen by SCUBA divers in beds of sea grass off the north coast of the Dominican Republic in less than 10 feet of water. When calm, the fish looks fairly normal, other than its odd box shape. When excited, the fish spreads its "wings", which are semi-transparent but tipped with a beautiful and phosphorescent bright blue coloration (designed to scare away predators). The prominent front portion of the "wing" is shaped much like the foot of an amphibian, which causes the fish to take on a "lizard-like" look.

The fish also has large eyes and the head is similar to species of a porcupine pufferfish.

External links

• http://www.gma.org/fogm/Dactylopterus_volitans.htm
• http://filaman.ifm-geomar.de/Summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=1021
• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2007). "Dactylopterus volitans" in FishBase. Dec 2007 version.