Craterocephalus helenae

Ivantsoff, Crowley & Allen, 1987

Drysdale Hardyhead

Species Summary

Named in 1987, Craterocephalus helenae is one of just a handful of fishes thought to be endemic to the Drysdale River system in the far-flung Kimberley region of Western Australia, one of the least accessible and least surveyed parts of the country.

Etymology

The species honours Helena, wife of Walter Ivantsoff, the senior author of the 1987 paper that described it.

Etymology compiled from C. Scharpf (2020), “Fishes of Sahul: An Etymological Survey (Part 3)”, Fishes of Sahul 34(2): 1568–1582, and etyfish.org.

Remarks

The species was still unnamed when Gregory Semple’s 1985 study of Flyspecked Hardyhead breeding referred to it only as an undescribed “Craterocephalus sp. nov. (Drysdale Hardyhead)”, using it in a hybridisation trial alongside C. stercusmuscarum fulvus and C. lentiginosus. ANGFA field trips to the remote Drysdale River recorded the species by name not long after its formal description.

Compiled for Home of the Rainbowfish from ANGFA sources: ANGFA field-trip and regional survey reports, In-Stream and Qld Newsletter, various dates.