Protemblemaria perla, known commonly as the pearl blenny, is a species of chaenopsid blenny

Chaenopsidae

The blennioid family Chaenopsidae includes the pike-blennies, tube-blennies and flagblennies: all perciform marine fish. The family is strictly tropical, ranging from North to South America...

 in the genus Protemblemaria

Protemblemaria

Protemblemaria is a genus of fish in the Chaenopsidae family, found in the eastern Pacific and western Atlantic oceans.-Species:* Warthead blenny, Protemblemaria bicirrus * Protemblemaria perla...

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Etymology

P. perla was described by Philip A Hastings in 2001. The specific name "perla", used as a noun in apposition, simultaneously refers to the pearly white bar-colouring on the body and to the Pearl Islands, where the three type specimens were collected.

Description

Male Protemblemaria perla are known to reach a maximum length of approximately 4 centimetres, according to the male holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

, USNM 353939, while females are known to reach approximately 2.9 centimetres, according to the female paratype

Paratype

Paratype is a technical term used in the scientific naming of species and other taxa of organisms. The exact meaning of the term paratype when it is used in zoology is not the same as the meaning when it is used in botany...

 USNM 353940. The blennies are primarily brown and yellow in colour, also displaying the aforementioned white stripes. The eyes of the blenny possess pale iris

Iris (anatomy)

The iris is a thin, circular structure in the eye, responsible for controlling the diameter and size of the pupils and thus the amount of light reaching the retina. "Eye color" is the color of the iris, which can be green, blue, or brown. In some cases it can be hazel , grey, violet, or even pink...

es with yellow or rusty lines stemming from the pupils, and pale blue dots underneath the eye sockets and around the jaws. P. perla shares the radiating lines in its eyes with its sister species P. bicirrus

Protemblemaria bicirrus

Protemblemaria bicirrus, known commonly as the Warthead blenny in Mexico and the United Kingdom, is a species of chaenopsid blenny in the genus Protemblemaria. It is found in rocky reefs from the Gulf of California to Peru, in the eastern Pacific ocean. It was named by Hildebrand in 1946, and can...

and P. punctata

Protemblemaria punctata

Protemblemaria punctata is a species of fish in the Chaenopsidae family. It is endemic to Venezuela.-Source:* Acero, A. 1996. . Downloaded on 4 August 2007....

, a trait Hastings describes as being possibly unique to members of Protemblemaria. As is typical of the genus, P. perla possesses fleshy ridges between the eyes and the snout. Hastings theorizes that Protemblemaria perla is most closely related to its southern Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 sister taxon P. punctata.

Distribution

The full extent of the distribution of Protemblemaria perla is uncertain, as it is only known from two male and a single female specimen collected from Isla del Rey, Pearl Islands

Pearl Islands

The Pearl Islands are a group of 100 or more islands lying about off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama.- Islands :...

, Panama

Panama

Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...

, in the eastern central Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

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