Chalapo Clinid

Labrisomus (Labrisomus) philippii (Steindachner)

Clinus philippii Steindachner, 1866:210 [west coast of South America; holotype presumably at the Naturhistorisches Museum, Vienna].

Clinus fortidentatus Cope, 1877:42 [Callao Bay; holotype apparently lost].

Clinus chilensis Sauvage, 1883:157 [Chile; holotype, MNHN A. 4870].

This species was adequately described by Hubbs (1953). He erroneously listed Steindachner’s description as “Labrisomus philippii” and failed to note that Clinus chilensis Sauvage was a synonym of L. philippii, which Bauchot (1967) was first to recognize.

The species is commonly represented in collections from Peru, and is known to range from close to the northern border of Peru (Isla Lobos de Tierra) to Coquimbo, Chile. The species is apparently uncommon south of the upper third of the Chilean coast; it was not reported by DeBuen (1962) in any of his collections from Montemar (near Valparaiso) or points south.

Auchenionchus Gill

Auchenionchus Gill, 1860:103 [originally given as Anchenionchus; first corrected spelling in Abbott, 1899; original orthography considered in error by Jordan, 1919; type-species: Clinus variolosus Valenciennes, by original designation].

Flabelliclinus DeBuen, 1962:57 [proposed as a subgenus of Auchenionchus; type-species: Auchenionchus verrucosus DeBuen, 1962 (= Clinus microcirrhis Valenciennes), by original designation].

Chalacoclinus DeBuen, 1962:57 [proposed as a subgenus of Auchenionchus; type-species: Auchenionchus chalaco DeBuen, 1962 (= Clinus crinitus Jenyns), by original designation].

DeBuen (1962) differentiated his subgenus Flabelliclinus from Auchenionchus on the structure of their supraorbital and nuchal tentacles (our translation of his differentiation follows):

Only the males of the subgenus Auchenionchus would be readily distinguished by the orbital cirrus (supraorbital tentacles) character while the nape cirri (nuchal tentacles) appear to be extraordinarily variable and often are damaged or missing. Therefore, these differences in cirri do not appear worthy of subgeneric status. DeBuen examined only one specimen (the holotype of A. verrucosus) attributed by him to the subgenus Flabelliclinus. He refers only to literature citations for the other included species

Labrisomus philippii, the Chalaco clinid, is a species of labrisomid blenny native to the Pacific coast of South America from Peru to Chile. This species can reach a length of 35 centimetres (14 in) TL and the greatest recorded weight for a specimen of this fish was 635 grams (22.4 oz). The identity of the person honoured by Steindachner in the specific name of this fish is unknown but it is thought to be one of the Chilean family of naturalists, the Philippis, Rodolfo Amando Philippi (1808-1904), the German-Chilean paleontologist and zoologist, his brother Bernhard Eunom Philippi (1811-1852) or Rudolfo's son, Federico Philippi (1838-1910).