'X' always seems to be a difficult letter in any A-Z theme. The last time it came up in Sunday Stamps I had to be a bit inventive using stamps like this -
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| Ireland - 2 December 1963: 100th anniversary of the Red Cross |
To find a true 'X' I had to go fishing for a green-tailed swordfish in Hungary.
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| Hungary - 9 May 1962 Xiphophorus helleri |
In Ancient Greek ξίφος (ksíphos) means a kind of double-edged sword and -φóρος (-phóros) means bearing. This alludes to the presence of an anal fin in male fish which enables it to hook into the vent of a female fish to deposit sperm.
hellerii: honours the name of Austrian botanist and naturalist Karl Bartholomaeus Heller (1824-1880), who explored Mexico between 1845-1848 and brought the type series of X. hellerii to Vienna.
The fish has been widely introduced into Mexico river basins and now occurs in rivers on all continents except Antarctica.
For other stamps from the 'X' files visit the links at Sunday-Stamps-x.
6 comments:
A colourful fish. Nice find, the natural world can always be relied on for an X.
I would never have thought of the red cross for X - clever! And very well done to find that fish.
I used also the red cross today.
What an interesting fish, too!
Hi Bob - well done ... two 'Xs' - the green tailed sword fish I see has become an introduced species pest across other continents ... especially southern Africa - sad to know about. Good stamps and we learn something else - especially re Heller ... cheers Hilary
double strike today! well done!
I went thoroughly thru all my flora and fauna stamps and neither of those species started with an X :D
Nice choices. I had no idea that these fish were a pest species.
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