Sthenopus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Aploactinidae
Genus: Sthenopus
J. Richardson, 1848
Species:
S. mollis
Binomial name
Sthenopus mollis
J. Richardson, 1848

Sthenopus is a monotypic genus of marine ray-finned fish, a velvetfish belonging to the family Aploactinidae. It is found in the western Pacific Ocean where it is known from China and Thailand. The only known member of this genus is Sthenopus mollis.

Taxonomy

Sthenopus was described as a genus in 1848 by the Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and Arctic explorer John Richardson when he described Sthenopus mollis as a new species from the "Sea of China". He placed this new species in the new monotypic genus Sthenopus.[1][2] This taxon is classified within the family Aploactinidae in the suborder Scorpaenoidei within the order Scorpaeniformes,[3] although this family is also treated as a subfamily of the stonefish family Synanceiidae[4][5] within the Scorpaenoidei, which in turn is treated as a superfamily within the order Perciformes.[6] The name of the genus, Sthenopus combiunes sthenos, meaning "strong" (although Richardson may have meant asthenos, i.e. "weak"), with pous, meaning "foot", an allusion to the pelvic fins being relatively small in size. The specific name mollis means "soft", a reference to the soft, loose, scale-less skin.[7]

Description

Sthenopus has the 3 front spines in the dorsal fin originating above or just to the rear of the eye and have a wide gap between them and the rest of the dorsal fin. It has a smooth body which is clothedin many elongated cirrhi, particularly towards the front. The lacrimal bone is weakly ossified and has no spines.[8]

Distribution and habitat

Sthenopus is found in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific. It occurs from Singapore to the South China Sea.[2] It is a demersal fish.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Aploactininae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Sthenopus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  3. ↑ J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 468–475. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6.
  4. ↑ Smith, W. Leo; Smith, Elizabeth; Richardson, Clara (February 2018). "Phylogeny and Taxonomy of Flatheads, Scorpionfishes, Sea Robins, and Stonefishes (Percomorpha: Scorpaeniformes) and the Evolution of the Lachrymal Saber". Copeia. 106 (1): 94–119. doi:10.1643/CG-17-669. S2CID 91157582.
  5. ↑ Willingham, AJ (13 April 2018). "Stonefish are already scary, and now scientists have found they have switchblades in their heads". CNN.
  6. ↑ Ricardo Betancur-R; Edward O. Wiley; Gloria Arratia; et al. (2017). "Phylogenetic classification of bony fishes". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 17 (162): 162. doi:10.1186/s12862-017-0958-3. PMC 5501477. PMID 28683774.
  7. ↑ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara, eds. (10 March 2022). "Order Perciformes (Part 10): Suborder Scorpaenoidei: Families Apistidae, Tetrarogidae, Synanceiidae, Aploacrinidae, Perryenidae, Eschmeyeridae, Pataecidae, Gnathanacanthidae, Congiopodidae and Zanclorhynchidae". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  8. 1 2 Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2022). "Sphenopus mollis" in FishBase. February 2022 version.
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