Fig. 451.—Lizard-skipper, Alticus saliens (Forster). A blenny which lies out of water on lava rocks, leaping from one to another with great agility. From nature; specimen from Point Distress, Tutuila Island, Samoa. (About one-half size.)
Fig. 452.—Emblemaria atlantica Jordan. Pensacola, Fla.
The rock-skippers (Salarias, Alticus, etc.) are herbivorous, with serrated teeth set loosely in the jaws. These live in the rock-pools of the tropics and leap from rock to rock when disturbed with the agility of lizards. They are dusky or gray in color with handsome markings. One of them, Erpichthys or Alticus saliens in Samoa, lives about lava rocks between tide-marks, and at low tide remains on the rocks, over which it runs with the greatest ease and with much speed, its movements being precisely like those of Periophthalmus. As in the species of the latter genus, otherwise wholly different, this Alticus has short ventral fins padded with muscle.
Fig. 453.—Scartichthys enosimæ Jordan & Snyder, a fish of the rock-pools of the sacred island of Enoshima, Japan. Family Blenniidæ.
Erpichthys atlanticus is found in abundance on both coasts of tropical America. Many species abound in Polynesia and in both Indies. Salarias enosimæ lives in the clefts of lava rocks on the shores of Japan. Ophioblennius (webbi) is remarkable for its strong teeth, Emblemaria (nivipes, Atlantica) for its very high dorsal. Many other genera allied to Blennius, Clinus, and Salarias abound in the warm seas.
Fig. 454.—Zacalles bryope Jordan & Snyder. Misaki, Japan.
