''Centropogon'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or h ...

es, waspfishes belonging to the subfamily Tetraroginae, which is

classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper *The Classified, a 1980s American roc ...

as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

to the

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

and marine waters around Australia.

Taxonomy

''Centropogon'' was first described as a genus of fishes in 1860 by the German-born British ichthyologist

Albert Günther Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS, also Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Günther (3 October 1830 – 1 February 1914), was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is ranked th ...

. The genus was created for ''Apistus australis'', which had originally been described as ''Cottus australis'' in 1790 by George Shaw in John White's ''Journal of a voyage to New South Wales''. The genus is included in the subfamily Tetraroginae within the Scorpaenidae in the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American Ichthyology, ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classificat ...

'' however other authorities place that subfamily within the stonefish family Synanceiidae, while other authorities classify this subfamily as a family in its own right. The genus name is a compound of ''kentron'', meaning a "thorn" or "spine", and "pogon", which means "beard". This name was not explained by Günther bit is though to allude to the many spines on the preorbital and preoperculum, having some similarity to a spiny “beard”.

Species

Three recognized species are in this genus: * '' Centropogon australis'' ( Shaw, 1790) (fortescue or eastern fortescue) * '' Centropogon latifrons'' Mees, 1962 (pale fortescue) * '' Centropogon marmoratus'' Günther, 1862 (marbled fortescue)

References

External links

FishBase info for Tetrarogidae
Tetraroginae Venomous fish Fish of Australia Marine fish genera Taxa named by Albert Günther {{Scorpaeniformes-stub