Butterfly Sculpin: Hemilepidotus papilio (Bean, 1880)
A distinctive-looking sculpin, uncommon north of St. Lawrence Island
Size
- To 39 cm total length
- Less than 20 cm in Chukchi Sea
Color & Characteristics
- Reddish brown, yellow and white, with metallic gold sheen and four more or less distinct blackish bars on upper sides and back and extending onto dorsal fin
- Three bands of scales running lengthwise on body plus one row close to anal fin
- 2–4, usually 3, rows of scales in dorsal band
- Rows of ventral scale band and anal row evenly spaced between lateral line and anal fin
- Dorsal-fin spines increase in height from first to third, membranes deeply incised
Distribution & Habitat
- Predominantly boreal Pacific
- Demersal, from tidepools and intertidal depths to upper continental slope
- At less than 55 m in Chukchi Sea, reported to 320 m in North Pacific
- Prefers stony and stony-gravel substrate
Feeding
- Diet includes gammarid amphipods, crabs, seed shrimp (ostracods), juvenile pollock
Life cycle
- Little known
- Oviparous; eggs probably produced on the seafloor
- Larvae are planktonic
- Juveniles settle to the bottom; smallest observedin Chukchi Sea bottom trawl catches has been 48 mm
Page Author: CW Mecklenburg & TA Mecklenburg
Updated: March 5, 2011
