Butidae Explained

Butidae is a family of sleeper gobies in the order Gobiiformes. The family was formerly classified as a subfamily of the Eleotridae but the 5th Edition of Fishes of the World classifies it as a family in its own right.^[1] Molecular phylogenetic analyses have demonstrated that the Butidae are a sister clade to the clade containing the families Gobiidae and Gobionellidae and that the Eleotridae is a sister to both of these clades. This means that the Eloetridae as formerly classified was paraphyletic and that its subfamilies should be raised to the status of families.

The species in the Butidae are largely restricted to tropical and sub-tropical waters of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. They are especially diverse in New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand where they can be important components of brackish and freshwater ecosystems.^[2] They are mostly quite small species but the marbled goby (Oxyeleotris marmorata) is a freshwater species of Buitdae from Southeast Asia that can grow to 65abbr=onNaNabbr=on long and is an important food fish.^[3]

Genera

The following genera are classified within the family Butidae:^[4]

• Bostrychus Lacépède, 1801
• Butis Bleeker, 1856
• Incara Visweswara Rao, 1971
• Kribia Herre, 1946
• Odonteleotris Gill, 1863
• Ophiocara Gill, 1863
• Oxyeleotris Bleeker, 1874
• Parviparma Herre, 1927
• Pogoneleotris Bleeker, 1875
• Prionobutis Bleeker, 1874

Notes and References

1. Web site: Classification of fishes from Fishes of the World 5th Edition . Nelson, JS . Grande, TC . Wilson, MVH . amp . 2016 . 10 May 2018 . 20 January 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220120135002/https://81a86d48-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/fotw5th/home/FotW5Classification.pdf?attachauth=ANoY7crIfB6q0amFyPzpVw0HNKYpziyjiVSv52zf5VgSIrevDuVCDf0Ot9atbJNEMBm8Ufsi0yeE3VQhEvhNf1FSa2N967AptcN3CZJ907ptO-uYBVkWdPPRwo2mSe6I9gw1z8evk-bCqUF0pT_FcIAXBJI2aDSmzPCbmlu1aUOlm5dqf-2bG00OGc5PMxC7sZql1Bfz-_3pUYASCWoAkJ48dYFaVVrYDBYgi8NliIZfsthrsX-NmVQ=&attredirects=1 . dead .
2. Book: Christine Thacker . The Biology of Gobies . Chapter 1.5 Systematics of Butidae and Eleotridae . CRC Press . 2011 . Robert Patzner . James L. Van Tassell . Marcelo Kovacic . B. G. Kapoor . 978-1578084364 . 2018-07-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160728181051/http://www.nhm.org/site/sites/default/files/ichthyology/pdf/ThackerButidaeEleotridae2011.pdf . 2016-07-28 . dead .
3. Riehl, R. & Baensch, H.A. (1996): Aquarium Atlas (Volume 1). Voyageur Press. p. 992.
4. 267091 . Butinae Bleeker, 1874 . 2015 . FishBase . 22 July 2018.