Chelonodon Explained

Chelonodon is a genus of pufferfishes native to the Indo-Pacific. They are mainly found in coastal regions and estuaries, but sometimes in rivers.

Species and taxonomy

There are five recognized species in this genus:^[1]

• Chelonodon bengalensis (Habib et al., 2018) (Bengal reticulated puffer)
• Chelonodon dapsilis (Whitley, 1943) (Plentiful toby)
• Chelonodon laticeps (J. L. B. Smith, 1948) (Blue-spotted blaasop)
• Chelonodon patoca (F. Hamilton, 1822) (Milk-spotted puffer)
• Chelonodon pleurospilus (Regan, 1919) (Blaasop beauty)

The type species of Chelonodon is Leiodon cutcutia, making the genus name a synonym. As a consequence, Catalog of Fishes and other authorities instead place the above five species in Chelonodontops.^[1] FishBase, however, still uses Chelonodon.

References

1. Habib, K.A. . A.K. Neogi . J. Oh . Y.-H. Lee . C.-G. Kim . 2018 . Chelonodontops bengalensis (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae): A New Species of Puffer Fish from the Northern Bay of Bengal Based on Morphology and DNA Barcode . Ocean Science Journal . 54 . 1 . 79–86 . 10.1007/s12601-018-0054-7 . 91952672 .