Butterfly Flyingfish, Cheilopogon papilio
Butterfly Flyingfish, Cheilopogon papilio. Fish provided by the by commercial fishermen of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, September 2011. Length: 22.2 cm (8.7 inches). Fish identification reconfirmed by H.J. Walker, Jr., Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California.
The Butterfly Flyingfish, Cheilopogon papilio, is a member of the Flyingfish or Exocoetidae Family, and is known in Mexico as volador mariposa. Globally, there are twenty-four species in the genus Cheilopogon, of which nine are found in Mexican waters, four in the Atlantic and five in the Pacific Ocean.
The Butterfly Flyingfish has an elongated broadly cylindrical body. They are blue-green dorsally and silvery ventrally. Their anal fin is transparent and their dorsal fin is dusky. Their pectoral fins are black with clear narrow margins and tips. Juveniles have black dorsal fins and two fused black barbels under their chin. They have a short head, a short blunt snout, and a small mouth equipped with small teeth having one point. Their anal fin has 9 to 10 rays (a key to identification) and originates under the third dorsal ray; their caudal fin is deeply forked with the lower lobe being significantly larger than the upper lobe; their pectoral fins are long, set high on the body, and reach beyond the anal fin origin; and, their pelvic fins originate far back on the body closer to the caudal fin than the gill cover and reach past the anal fin origin. They are covered with large smooth scales. Their lateral line is low on the body.
The Butterfly Flyingfish is an oceanic pelagic species found on the surface to depths up to 20 m (65 feet). They reach a maximum of 22.2 cm (8.7 inches) in length, with this upper limit established by the fish photographed above. They feed on planktonic organisms and small fish. In turn they are preyed upon by birds, dolphins, dorado, marlins, porpoises, squid, and tuna. They have large pectoral fins and are capable of leaping and gliding considerable distances above the ocean surface. Reproduction is oviparous with the release of large sticky filaments that attach to floating or benthic weeds. The Butterfly Flyingfish is poorly studied with very limited information available about their lifestyle and behavioral patterns including specific details on age, growth, longevity, movement patterns, diet, habitat use, and reproduction.
The Butterfly Flyingfish is a resident of all Mexican waters of the Pacific with the exception that they are absent from of the northern half of the Sea of Cortez and from along the entire west coast of Baja.
The Butterfly Flyingfish is not overly straightforward to identify as it looks very much like several other flyingfish. Some of these can be quickly eliminated by their dorsal fin ray counts, as the Butterfly Flyingfish has at least 11. The others include the Blackwing Flyingfish, Hirundichthys rondeletii (anal fin origin under the dorsal fin origin), the Panamic Flyingfish, Prognichthys tringa (pelvic fins nearer gill cover than caudal fin base), the Sailor Flyingfish, Prognichthys sealei (white dorsal fin), and the Smallhead Flyingfish, Cheilopogon pinnatibarbatus (pelvic fins nearer gill cover than caudal fin base).
From a conservation perspective the Butterfly Flyingfish is currently considered to be of Least Concern with stable, widely distributed populations. They are seldom seen by humans and due to their rarity, they are of limited value and interest to most.