Sand lance

Sand lances
Northern sand lance, Ammodytes dubius
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Actinopterygii Order: Perciformes Family: Ammodytidae
Genera
Ammodytes Ammodytoides Bleekeria Gymnammodytes Hyperoplus Lepidammodytes Protammodytes See text for species.

A sand lance or sandlance is a fish belonging to the family Ammodytidae. Several species of sand lance are commonly known as "sand eels" or "sandeels", though they are not related to true eels. Another variant name is launce, and all names of the fish are references to its slender body and pointed snout. The family name (and genus name, Ammodytes) means "sand burrower", which describes the sand lance's habit of burrowing into sand to avoid tidal currents.

Sand lances are most commonly encountered by fishermen in the North Pacific and North Atlantic, but are found in oceans throughout the world. These fish do not have pelvic fins and do not develop a swim bladder, staying true to their bottom-dwelling habit as adults. Both adult and larval sea lances primarily feed on copepods. Larval forms of this fish are perhaps the most abundant of all fish larvae in areas such as the northwest Atlantic, serving as a major food item for cod, salmon, and other commercially important species. As adults, sand lances are harvested commercially in some areas (primarily in Europe), leading to direct human competition with diving birds such as puffins, auks, and cormorants. Some species are inshore coastal dwellers, and digging for sand lances to use as a bait fish has been a popular pastime in coastal areas of Europe and North America. Other species are deep-water dwellers, some of which have only recently been described to science, and most of which lack common names. Sand lances have chameleon-like independent eye movements.

Species

There are twenty-three species in seven genera:

• Genus Ammodytes
  • American sand lance, Ammodytes americanus DeKay, 1842.
  • Northern sand lance, Ammodytes dubius Reinhardt, 1837.
  • Pacific sand lance, Ammodytes hexapterus Pallas, 1814.
  • Small sand-eel, Ammodytes marinus Raitt, 1934.
  • Pacific sandeel, Ammodytes personatus Girard, 1856.
  • Lesser sand eel, Ammodytes tobianus Linnaeus, 1758.
• Genus Ammodytoides
  • Gill's sand lance, Ammodytoides gilli (Bean, 1895).
  • Ammodytoides kimurai Ida & Randall, 1993.
  • Pitcairn Sandlance, Ammodytoides leptus Collette & Randall, 2000.
  • Ammodytoides pylei Randall, Ida & Earle, 1994.
  • Scaly sandlance, Ammodytoides renniei (Smith, 1957).
  • Ammodytoides vagus (McCulloch & Waite, 1916).
• Genus Bleekeria
  • Bleekeria kallolepis Günther, 1862.
  • Bleekeria mitsukurii Jordan & Evermann, 1902.
  • Bleekeria viridianguilla (Fowler, 1931).
• Genus Gymnammodytes
  • Cape sandlance, Gymnammodytes capensis (Barnard, 1927).
  • Mediterranean sand eel, Gymnammodytes cicerellus (Rafinesque, 1810).
  • Smooth sandeel, Gymnammodytes semisquamatus (Jourdain, 1879).
• Genus Hyperoplus
  • Great sand eel, Hyperoplus immaculatus (Corbin, 1950).
  • Greater sand eel, Hyperoplus lanceolatus (Le Sauvage, 1824).
• Genus Lepidammodytes
  • Lepidammodytes macrophthalmus Ida, Sirimontaporn & Monkolprasit, 1994.
• Genus Protammodytes
  • Protammodytes brachistos Ida, Sirimontaporn & Monkolprasit, 1994.
  • Protammodytes sarisa (Robins & Böhlke, 1970).

See also

The sand lance has lent its name to two submarines of the United States Navy:

• USS Sand Lance (SS-381), a Balao-class submarine.
• USS Sand Lance (SSN-660), a Sturgeon-class nuclear submarine.

References

• "Ammodytidae". FishBase. Ed. Rainer Froese and Daniel Pauly. January 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
• biologists.org on independent eye movements

External links

• Sand Lance profile at Fisheries and Oceans Canada