Pseudotolithus Explained

Pseudotolithus is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums or croakers. The species in this genus are found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Taxonomy

Pseudotolithus was first proposed as a genus in 1863 by the Dutch physician, herpetologist and ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker when he described the new species P. brachygnathus, P. epipercus and P. typus.[1] P. typus was designated as the type species by virtue of being named typus. Ethelwynn Trewavas placed the eastern Atlantic Afrotropical sciaenids, Pseudotolithus and Pteroscion, in the tribe Pseudotolithini.[2] Other workers have placed this tribe in the subfamily Pseudotolithinae alongside the tribe Miracorvini, Miracorvina and Pentheroscion.[3] However, the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise tribes or subfamilies within the Sciaenidae which it places in the order Acanthuriformes.[4]

Etymology

Pseudotolithus prefixes Otolithus with pseudo meaning "false" due to Bleeker's perceived false resemblance between these fishes and those of that genus.[5]

Species

Pseudotolithus has the following valid species classified within it:

Characteristics

Pseudotolithus croakers have a carrot-shaped swim bladder running the whole length of the body cavity with a pair of long tube-like appendages growing out of its front. These appendages branch into as many as 32 tubules. They do not have any barbels on the chin.[2] The largest species in the genus is the law croaker (P. senegallus) which has a maximum published total length of while the smallest is the bobo croaker (P. elongatus) at .

Distribution

Pseudotolithus croakers are found in the Western Atlantic Ocean from Morocco in the north to Angola in the south.

Notes and References

  1. Bleeker, P. . 1863 . Mémoire sur les poissons de la côte de Guinée . Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem (Ser. 2) . 18 (1862) . 1–136 . French.
  2. Book: A. R. Longhurst . 1969 . A synopsis of biological data on West African croakers (Pseudotolithus typus, P. senegalensis and P. elongatus) . Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations . Rome .
  3. Kunio Sasaki . 1989 . Phylogeny of the family Sciaenidae, with notes on its Zoogeography (Teleostei, Peciformes) . Memoirs of the Faculty of Fishes Hokkaido University . 36 . 1–2 . 1–137 .
  4. Book: Fishes of the World . 5th . J. S. Nelson . T. C. Grande . M. V. H. Wilson . 2016 . 497–502 . Wiley . 978-1-118-34233-6 . 2023-07-05 . 2019-04-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190408194051/https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ . dead .
  5. Web site: Series Eupercaria (Incertae sedis): Families Callanthidae, Centrogenyidae, Dinopercidae, Emmelichthyidae, Malacanthidae, Monodactylidae, Moronidae, Parascorpididae, Sciaenidae and Sillagidae . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . 9 March 2023 . 5 July 2023 . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara.

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