Cairnsichthys Explained

Cairnsichthys is a genus of rainbowfishes from the subfamily Melanotaeniinae. The genus is endemic to freshwater streams in eastern Queensland in north eastern Australia. The genus was designated as a monotypic genus in 1928 by John T. Nichols and Henry C. Raven but in 2018 a second species was assigned to the genus.^[1]

Species

• Cairnsichthys bitaeniatus Allen, Hammer & Raadik, 2018 - Daintree rainbowfish^[2]
• Cairnsichthys rhombosomoides (Nichols & Raven, 1928) - Cairns rainbowfish

Etymology

The genus is named after the Australian city of Cairns with the suffix ichthys which is Greek for "fish".^[3]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Cairnsichthys . 6 July 2019 . Museums Victoria . Fishes of Australia.
2. Hammer, M. P. . G. R. Allen . K. C. Martin . M. Adams . B. C. Ebner . T. A. Raadik . P. J. Unmack . 3 . 2018 . Revision of the Australian Wet Tropics endemic rainbowfish genus Cairnsichthys (Atheriniformes: Melanotaeniidae), with description of a new species . Zootaxa . 4413 . 2 . 271–294. 10.11646/zootaxa.4413.2.3 . 29690109 .
3. Web site: Order ATHERINIFORMES: Families BEDOTIIDAE, MELANOTAENIIDAE, PSEUDOMUGILIDAE, TELMATHERINIDAE, ISONIDAE, DENTATHERINIDAE and PHALLOSTETHIDAE . 6 July 2019 . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara . 14 March 2019.