This is my first time posting on the iNat forum so bear with me. The links were removed because apparently there is a limit. This was also posted to my journal with working links ( https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/diederik_7/124150-clinus-agilis-or-clinus-marmoratus ).
PROLOGUE
In this Journal Post I want to write down my thoughts on this taxonomic confusion that I noticed over a year ago. This goes very in depth of many publications in the past, I will try to make it as easy to read and engaging as possible, but I am aware that not everyone geeks out about taxonomic history like I so clearly have. So, I would like to just ask that you at least read the introduction, and the conclusion at the end, feel free to skip the taxonomic history and iNaturalist’s role sections if that doesn’t interest you.
1. INTRODUCTION
A year ago, I noticed an odd thing while exploring species of the genus Clinus on iNaturalist: the species Clinus agilis (Agile Klipfish) that my Two Oceans book described was not part of the species list. I assumed there had been a taxon name change since its publication (I have an older edition from 1996, so it was very likely). However, at first I couldn’t find any evidence to this taxon name change.
At this point, I also saw the species name Clinus marmoratus on the Clinus page. Assuming this had been the taxon name change, I opened up this page, and to my surprise, I was greeted by a wikipedia page that described the Shorttassel Weedfish (Cologrammus flavescens). I was shocked to realize that the Shorttassel Weedfish was a New Zealand endemic fish of the family Clinidae, and it had its own iNaturalist page under its real name (link). Looking through the observations, I found some observations that were originally described as Clinus agilis, but now showed up as part of Cologrammus flavescens.
After seeing this oddity, I decided to do some research to find out what had happened here, so I will take you on a little journey to explain what has happened, so strap in and enjoy this taxonomic mix-up.
2. TAXONOMIC HISTORY
2.1 Agile Klipfish
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In 1861, a French explorer and naturalist named F. L. Castelnau published his “Mémoire sur les poissons de L’Afrique Australe”, where he described the new species Clinus marmoratus.
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In 1931, J. L. B Smith published “New and little known fish from the south and east coasts of Africa” and, although I wasn’t able to find the original text, Clinus agilis was described in “New Records of South African Fishes” by Smith.
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Multiple sources describe three changes that J. L. B. Smith made to the scientific name. The first, was a genus change into Ophthalmolophus agilis in 1945 (Credited by Penrith, 1969), then another change into Ophthalmolophus anne in 1948 (Also credited by Penrith), and lastly a change to Clinus anne in 1966 (once again, credited by Penrith). It’s unclear to me what led him to change the scientific name into this, and why none of them seem to have been used again.
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Then, we get to Mary-Louise Penrith, who in 1969 published "The systematics of the fishes of the family Clinidae in South Africa. In this publication, Penrith uses the scientific name Clinus agilis to describe the Agile Klipfish, and she also included previous synonyms of this species, all of which I mentioned previously:
-Ophthalmolophus agilis (Smith, 1945: 54, 1949: 355, pl. 77 fig. 988),
-Ophthalmolophus anne (Smith, 1947: 733, fig. 2, 1949: 355, pl. 77 fig. 980), and
-Clinus anne (Smith, 1966: 73).
Interestingly, she did not include Clinus marmoratus as a synonym of Clinus agilis, instead, she lists it as a synonym of Clinus superciliosus. -
Penrith re-used Clinus agilis in a new publication in 1983, where she describes range expansions to Clinids.
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In 1986, J. L. B. Smith published the iconic “Smiths’ Sea Fishes” book, often nicknamed “the fish bible”. In this book, Smith goes back to describing the Agile Klipfish are Clinus agilis again, crediting all of the sources above.
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In 2009, Robert Patzner published a book “The biology of Blennies”, where he used the name Clinus agilis.
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As my last entry in this summarized history: In 2022, SAIAB published a 5 volume book set entitled “Coastal Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean”. In volume 4, they use the scientific name Clinus marmoratus to describe the Agile Klipfish, and also included all of the other synonyms this species has gone through:
-Clinus agilis (Smith 1931); (Penrith 1969)
-Ophthalmolophus agilis (Smith 1946)
-Ophthalmolophus anne (Smith 1948)
-Clinus anne (Smith 1966)
2.2 Shorttassel Weedfish
I will go less into detail about this species simply because, to put it bluntly, I have less interest in this species than South African species. I also have far less experience, knowledge, and sources for this species.
- In 1872, C. B. Klunzinger described for the first time the Shorttassel Weedfish under the scientific name Clinus marmoratus in a book describing many species in South Australia.
What followed was a slightly weird series of events:
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As you may have suspected, this was an issue: the scientific name “Clinus marmoratus” was already taken at the time thanks to Castelnau (1861). So, also in 1872, Klunzinger changed the species name to Heteroclinus marmoratus.
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Also in 1872, Hutton changed the scientific name to Heteroclinus flavescens. I have not been able to find a source for this.
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Lastly, once again in 1872, Hutton made one last change: Cologrammus flavescens. I can’t be certain of the specific dates at which this happened, or whether this was immediately made as an addendum for the original publication, since records of these are not accessible. Personally, I like to imagine it was just two people arguing about what to call this species and corresponded back and forth with suggestions, but I know this is most likely not true.
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After this, the species name remained untouched until 1955, when Scott described what he believed to be a new species: Clinus puellarum. In this publication, he said “The description of C. marmoratus Klunzinger, 1872, is not sufficiently detailed or precise to permit of its unequivocal recognition.”
Thus, he believed the two species were unrelated, and therefore did not officially take over as a new species name for the Shorttassel Weedfish. -
Clinus puellarum is listed as a synonym of the valid Heteroclinus puellarum while citing the same source as above. However, I have not been able to find any mention of the genus Heteroclinus in this paper.
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In 1974, R. H. Green uses the scientific name Clinus puellarum in a catalogue of the type material in the Queen Victoria Museum.
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In 1992, Fricke records Clinus marmoratus in a publication of the types in the fish collection of the State Nature Museum in Stuttgart. Although the use of this scientific name might come from copying the name from a name plate at the museum, or trusting previous records.
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So far, the inclusion of Clinus puellarum seems irrelevant to the story, but this was changed by one book published in 1993, where R. H. Kuiter states “H. puellarum Scott 1955. appears to be synonym [of Heteroclinus marmoratus] based on juveniles.”
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The following year, in 1994, a book called “The fishes of Australia’s south coast” was published, edited by M. F. Gomon, J. M. Glover, and R. H. Kuiter. In this book, it is reported that both Heteroclinus marmoratus and Heteroclinus puellarum as valid, distinct species. However, since I do not have access to this book anywhere (other than for purchase). I believe Heteroclinus puellarum is considered a valid, distinct species. All of this means that: the Clinus puellarum was a red herring all along in this section! This just means that it was briefly believed that H. puellarum was a synonym of the Shorttassel Weedfish, but was descredited just one year later.
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In 2005, Fricke once again records Clinus marmoratus in an updated version of the the 1992 publication of the types in the fish collection of the State Nature Museum in Stuttgart.
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In 2006, D. F. Hoese uses Hutton’s (1872) scientific name: Heteroclinus flavescens and claims both Clinus marmoratus and Heteroclinus marmoratus to be synonyms of this species.
Most of this history is available on the Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes in CAS (https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp, if you search for the scientific names.
3. iNATURALIST’S ROLE
On November 11 2023, Donald Davesne made a taxon change (link) from Clinus agilis to Clinus marmoratus (common name Agile Klipfish; link), while citing Eschmeyer’s catalog of fishes hosted by CAS (link). This source describes Clinus agilis as a synonym of Clinus marmoratus:
agilis, Clinus Smith [J. L. B.] 1931:154, Pl. 16 [Records of the Albany Museum Grahamstown v. 4 (pt 1); ref. 4062] Knysna estuary, Cape Province, South Africa. Syntypes: (7) SAIAB [formerly RUSI] [ex AMG] 242 (1), SAM [ex AMG] 18278 (1). •Valid as Clinus agilis Smith 1931 – (Penrith 1969:37 [ref. 20726], Smith 1986:762 [ref. 5712], Patzner et al. 2009:466 [ref. 30396]). •Synonym of Clinus marmoratus Castelnau 1861 – (Holleman 2022:395 [ref. 39961]). Current status: Synonym of Clinus marmoratus Castelnau 1861. Clinidae. Habitat: marine.
Only a month later, on December 13 2023, Donald once again made a taxon swap changing Clinus marmoratus (Agile Klipfish) to Cologrammus flavescens (Shorttassel Weedfish) based once again on Eschmeyer’s catalog of fishes (link), where Clinus marmoratus is described twice, once as Castelnau’s original 1861 description of the Agile Klipfish:
marmoratus, Clinus Castelnau [F. L.] 1861:52 [Mémoire sur les poissons de l’Afrique australe; ref. 767] Table Bay, South Africa. Syntype: MNHN A-2143 (1). Type catalog: Bauchot 1967:47 [ref. 20734]. •Synonym of Clinus superciliosus (Linnaeus 1758) – (Penrith 1969:57 [ref. 20726]). •Valid as Clinus marmoratus Castelnau 1861 – (Holleman 2022:395 [ref. 39961]). Current status: Valid as Clinus marmoratus Castelnau 1861. Clinidae. Distribution: Southeastern Atlantic, southwestern Indian Ocean: Namibia south to Cape of Good Hope (South Africa), then north to Eastern Cape (South Africa). Habitat: marine.
And once as a synonym of Cologrammus flavescens from New Zealand:
marmoratus, Clinus Klunzinger [C. B.] 1872:33 [Archiv für Naturgeschichte v. 38 (pt. 1); ref. 2623] Queen’s Cliff, 38°16’S, 144°40’E, Port Phillip, Victoria, Australia. Syntypes: SMNS 1798 (2). Type catalog: Fricke 1992:8 [ref. 20296], Fricke 2005:27 [ref. 29864]. Objectively invalid [primary homonym], preoccupied by Clinus marmoratus Castelnau 1861 and name should not be used or the ICZN should be petitioned. •Treated as valid as Heteroclinus marmoratus (Klunzinger 1872) – (Kuiter 1993:332 [ref. 23929], Gomon et al. 1994:759 [ref. 22532]). •Synonym of Heteroclinus flavescens (Hutton 1872) – (Hoese 2006:1532 [ref. 28998]). •Synonym of Cologrammus flavescens (Hutton 1872). 1°Homonym. Current status: Synonym of Cologrammus flavescens (Hutton 1872). Clinidae. Habitat: marine.
I assume seeing these two names might have been confusing, and led to the change of the wrong Clinus marmoratus into Cologrammus flavescens, probably either assuming both Clinus marmoratus were the same species, or that the one changed was the New Zealand Clinus marmoratus.
After this taxon swap, all of the observations that were previously in the Clinus agilis original page, were transferred to the new Cologrammus flavescens page of the New Zealand fish.
A few months after this taxon swap, on April 15 2024 (link), iNaturalist created a new taxon for the South African Agile Klipfish. Except, it was using the scientific name Clinus marmoratus, and no common name. iNaturalist’s auto-description from wikipedia auto-detected the Cologrammus flavescens wikipedia page since it had Clinus marmoratus as a known synonym, and the wikipedia page for Clinus agilis did not have this synonym at the time.
On Christmas day 2024, I found this discrepancy that described a New Zealand fish for what was supposed to be a South African fish, so I submitted a flag for curation (link) to remove the Cologrammus flavescens description. In this flag, I voice my concerns about the name change, and give a brief history of the names of both species. At this time, Operculum_ben removed the auto-description linking this species to Cologrammus flavescens on wikipedia.
On this flag, Donald Davesne explained the basis for his decision to make the taxa swaps, following Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes. This of course makes sense, as Clinus marmoratus is credited as the active scientific name for the South African Agile Klipfish on the SAIAB’s Coastal Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean books.
4. CONCLUSION
Taxonomy can be really interesting, but it can also sometimes be frustrating. Taxonomical issues often arise from lack of communication, and assumptions. In this case, this issue was created when Klunzinger named his New Zealand fish Clinus marmoratus, a name that was already occupied by a South African fish. Going forward from here, I imagine the confusion came from not having an agreed upon scientific name for either species, jumping back and forth between a few iterations, seemingly without reasoning behind it.
The main point I want to bring up here is that although this issue with scientific names is only really an issue on iNaturalist, I want to clarify that it is not necessarily the site’s fault, nor is it Donald’s. This seems to have been an issue for many decades, but it was never as important as it is now, since both species were present in different continents, very few people would encounter both. The only people who would have been affected by this before, would be scientists researching either of these species. However, since not many people did research these species, and the ones who did, also seemed to have issues naming these two fish, to the point of exacerbating it, not much had been done before.
In the upcoming months, I would like to reach out to the editors of SAIAB’s book to clarify why the scientific name Clinus marmoratus was chosen for the Agile Klipfish to try to put an end to this confusion. For the time being, we are forced to use the iNaturalist species page for Clinus marmoratus (link). I will also try to get the wikipedia page for Clinus agilis to be linked to this page to avoid more confusion. For the time being, use the aforementioned page to identify any Agile Klipfish you come across, just beware of not accidentally clicking the New Zealand Cologrammus flavescens, which also appears when you look up Clinus marmoratus.
Thank you for your attention, whether you read the whole thing or just the conclusion. Doing the research to write this was fun, frustrating, rewarding, and really interesting to me, fitting all the pieces together and trying to understand what happened those many years ago. I am glad you have gone on this journey with me and hope it was as interesting to read as it was to write.
Please feel free to comment your thoughts on this, and tag me or link any observations you think may be the Agile Klipfish.