Hoodwinker sunfish
Mola tecta, the hoodwinker sunfish, belongs to the family Molidae and genus Mola. It is closely related to the more widely known ocean sunfish (Mola mola). The Latin word "tecta" means hidden. The word "hidden" was adopted for the name because the fish has blended in among other species of sunfish for a long time and has only been discovered recently. Discovered on a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2015, it was the first new species of sunfish to be identified in 130 years. Mola tecta are mostly discovered in the temperate region of the Southern Hemisphere in the water near Australia, New Zealand, Southern Chile and Southern Africa. It was first described by Marianne Nyegaard, a marine scientist who studied ocean sunfish for her PhD.
The hoodwinker sunfish is a congener of (in the same genus as) the more widely known ocean sunfish, Mola mola. Mola tecta, like other Mola species, has a flat, almost symmetrical oval shape. It has a smooth body shape, no bump and has a maximum length of 242cm (about 7.9 feet). It does not have spines in its fins nor real caudal fin (tail fin). Its scales have evolved into small spines. Like cartilaginous fish, Mola tecta has counter shading, which means that it has a darker color on the dorsal side than on the ventral side. Compared to other Mola species, Mola tecta is slimmer, has a sleeker adult body shape, and lacks a protruding snout and lumps along the tail fin. It reaches up to three meters in length and can weigh up to two tonnes (2.0 long tons; 2.2 short tons). Parasites are found in all the dissected Mola tecta.
Discovered on a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2014, the hoodwinker sunfish was the first new species of sunfish to be identified in 130 years. It is thought to live primarily in the Southern Hemisphere and has been found in waters off New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, and Chile. There are, however, three recorded cases of it being found in the Northern Hemisphere: one (previously thought to be a Mola mola) in Ameland in the Netherlands in 1889 and a 7-foot (2.1m) specimen that washed up near Santa Barbara, California in 2019. Mola alexandrini, another Mola species has been found in the Southern Pacific. Mola mola, in comparison, is the most widespread species and has been found in all the major oceans except for the polar area.
Their diet consists of salps and nectonic siphonophore because these two organisms are found in the digestive tract of Mola tecta.
