Sunagocia

Sunagociais a genus of marine, demersal ray-finned fish belonging to the family Platycephalidae. These fishes are native to the Indian and Pacific oceans.

Sunagocia
Sunagocia arenicola
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Scorpaeniformes
Family: Platycephalidae
Genus: Sunagocia
Imamura, 2003
Type species
Thysanophrys arenicola
Schultz, 1966
Synonyms
  • Eurycephalus Imamura, 1996 (preoccupied)

Taxonomy

Sunagocia was first proposed as a genus in 1996 as Eurycephalus by the Japanese ichthyologist Hisashi Imamura, with Thysanophrys arenicola, which had been described by Leonard Peter Schultz from Naen Island, Rongelap Atoll in 1966, as its type species. In 2003 Imamura renamed the genus Sunagocia because Eurycephalusis preoccupied as a synonym of the longhorn beetle genus Tapeina.[1][2] This genus is classified within the family Playtcephalidae, the flatheads which the 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies within the suborder Platycephaloidei in the order Scorpaeniformes.[3]

Etymology

Sunagocia is a latinisation of sunagochi the Japanese common name for S. arenicola. Gochi, which is also spelled kochi, is a general name in Japanese for flatheads and dragonets.[4]

Species

There are currently five recognized species in this genus:[5][6]

  • Sunagocia arenicola (Schultz, 1966) (Broadhead flathead)
  • Sunagocia carbunculus (Valenciennes, 1833) (Papillose flathead)
  • Sunagocia omanensis L. W. Knapp & J. E. Randall, 2013[6]
  • Sunagocia otaitensis (Cuvier, 1829) (Fringelip flathead)
  • Sunagocia sainsburyi L. W. Knapp & Imamura, 2004 (Sainsbury's flathead)

Characteritics

Sunagocia flatheads have lateral lines which typically have a scale count of 50-55, always less than 60 and the number of oblique scale rows which slant towards the tail from the back above the lateral line are roughly equal in number to the number of lateral line scales. The lateral line scales have two pores. The upper part of the head is spines but has no tubercles. The suborbital ridge normally has four clear spines in adults, less in younger fish. The lappet on the iris may be weakly or clearly branched. There are poorly developed sensory tubes partially covering the cheeks.[7] The maximum publishedlength attained by these fishes varies from a standard length of 9.7 cm (3.8 in) in S. sainsburyi to a maximum total length of 40 cm (16 in) in R. carbunculus.[5]

Distribution

Sunagocia flatheads are found in the Indo-Pacific where they occur from eastern Africa east to the Marshall Islands and Fiji, north to Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands and south to northern Australia.[8][9]

References
  1. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Platycephalidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  2. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Genus-Sunagoia". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  3. J. S. Nelson; T. C. Grande; M. V. H. Wilson (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Wiley. pp. 467–495. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6.
  4. Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara, eds. (7 December 2021). "Order Perciformes (Part 11): Suborder Platycephaloidei: Families Bembridae, Parabembridae, Hoplichthyidae, Platycephalidae and Plectrogeniidae". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  5. Froese, Rainer and Pauly, Daniel, eds. (2022). Species of Sunagocia in FishBase. February 2022 version.
  6. Knapp, L.W. & Randall, J.E. (2013): Sunagocia omanensis, a new flathead fish (Scorpaeniformes, Platycephalidae) from the Western Indian Ocean, with comments on the distribution of Sunagocia carbuncula. Zootaxa, 3718 (1): 97–100.
  7. Hisashi Imamura (2003). "Sunagocia, a Replacement Name for the Platycephalid Genus Eurycephalus (Actinopterygii : Percomorpha), with Taxonomic Comments on the Species of the Genus". Species diversity. 8 (3): 301–306. doi:10.12782/specdiv.8.301. hdl:2115/46800.
  8. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2022). "Sunagocia arenicola" in FishBase. February 2022 version.
  9. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2022). "Sunagocia otaitensis" in FishBase. February 2022 version.
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