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Histiophryne psychedelica: the beautiful bouncer
More science fiction or more comic book character? Hard to say. But a recently-described frogfish from Indonesian waters is sure to make the creative juices of artists, children's book authors and Disney animators flow freely. Not to mention lifting the spirits of all who believe that the God of the Bible created heaven and earth, the sea and all things - including frogfish - in them. Of course, every fish, bird, lizard, snake, snail, worm and every creepy crawly known attests to the wisdom and genius of the Creator. Every one has a fascinating story to tell. Some, however, just seem to stir the imagination a little more than others. The psychedelic frogfish, Histiophryne psychedelica, is one of them. This member of the large order of well-known anglerfishes - you know, the wrinkle-skinned, ball-shaped, fanged uglies that wiggle a lure above their mouths to draw small fish into the jaws of doom - was first discovered in 1982 but the two specimens, due to misidentification, ended up all forlorn in a bottle of chloroform. Unloved, unvisited, forgotten. Their existence came to light again in 2008 when photos of living specimens taken by divers off Ambon Island eventually landed in frogfish expert, Theodore Pietsch's , inbox. Prof Pietsch immediately recognized it as a new species. Well, not new, really. He had been the one who had misidentified the 1982 specimens. But with good reason - the striking color scheme of living specimens had been completely washed out upon decease and bottling. When photos and observations of living specimens became available it was a different story.
What makes the psychedelic frogfish so, well, interesting? For one thing, when its cavernous mouth is shut, it's drop-dead gorgeous to behold; words cannot do justice to its candy-striped color scheme. Talk about a deviation from the stereotypical mental image most of us carry of sinister-looking deep-sea anglers! Unlike almost all other frogfish, H psychedelica does not change its patterning to match a changing background, remaining forever beautiful until drained of color by death.
For another thing, H psychedelica perambulates in a truly comical manner. Most all frogfish are capable of getting about not just by trotting along on the bottom using their fins as peg legs but also by means of jet propulsion. Most species swim in open water by this means, sucking in water through the mouth and "forcefully expelling [it] through
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restricted, posteriorly-directed opercular openings".1 Our friend combines the two methods into one bizarre form of locomotion; no sooner does it hit the bottom than it kicks off with its legs and simultaneously turns on the propulsion. Add to that fact its habit of contorting its bodily features at such a time as to take on an almost perfectly spherical shape, it looks to all the world like "an inflated rubber ball bouncing along the bottom" (Pietsch). Surely our heavenly Father had just such an image in mind when He carefully designed this fish. I mean, the change of shape involves quite a repertoire of contortions, including "the dorsal fin bent to one side, the posterior part of the body and tail bent strongly forward to approach the head, the fleshy lateral extensions of the cheeks and chin pulled back, and the dorsoventral diameter increased significantly". Now I can't follow all that any better than you can, but you don't need to be a genius to recognize careful planning and design. Forget about random mutations and competition!
Psychedelica also sports a remarkably flat face, meaning that its eyes both point forwards rather than out to the sides, apparently enabling it to perceive depth of vision just as we do. Exactly what the purpose of such vision might be is hard to say.
To me its most admirable feature is its ability to squeeze into narrow openings. Ichthyologists speculate that herein lies the secret to its foraging technique. Over millions of years of evolution (tongue in cheek!) its ancestors lost the usual fishing tackle and sit-and-wait technique used by its cousins and replaced it with an even more brutal method of snaring prey. It would seem that it simply forces its way into the nooks and crevices inhabited by shrimps and other potential prey, creating such a tight squeeze as it goes in that nothing can get past it to get out. The going can be so hard even for psychedelica that it takes up to a couple of minutes to work its way in, employing "rigorous twisting and turning of the body, together with active use of the pelvic fins, to facilitate entry". Most people I know shudder at the thought of squeezing through narrow crevices in caves. Aren't you glad you aren't a Histiophryne psychedelica. I am. But I'm equally delighted that our heavenly Father decided to make this engaging little fish for our pleasure and to His glory. Try as hard as I may to keep a straight face, the realization that right now some psychedelicas are hop-plop-bouncing along out there somewhere on the watery bottom makes me grin.
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