''Lates'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of freshwater and

euryhaline Euryhaline organisms are able to adapt to a wide range of salinities. An example of a euryhaline fish is the short-finned molly, '' Poecilia sphenops'', which can live in fresh water, brackish water, or salt water. The green crab ('' Carcinus m ...

lates perches belonging to the family

Latidae The Latidae, known as the lates perches, are a family of perch-like fish found in Africa, Asia, and the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Including about 13 species, the family, previously classified subfamily Latinae in family Centropomidae, w ...

. The

generic Generic or generics may refer to: In business * Generic term, a common name used for a range or class of similar things not protected by trademark * Generic brand, a brand for a product that does not have an associated brand or trademark, other ...

name is also used as a common name, lates, for many of the species. All species are predatory, and the

Nile perch The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus''), also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi, Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is wides ...

(''L. niloticus''), in particular, has become infamous as an

invasive species An invasive species is an introduced species that harms its new environment. Invasive species adversely affect habitats and bioregions, causing ecological, environmental, and/or economic damage. The term can also be used for native spec ...

introduced into the East African

Lake Victoria Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropics, tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface are ...

, where many native

Haplochromines __NOTOC__ The haplochromine cichlids are a tribe of cichlids in subfamily Pseudocrenilabrinae called Haplochromini. This group includes the type genus ''Haplochromis'' plus a number of closely related genera such as ''Aulonocara'', '' Astatotilap ...

were driven

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

. In contrast to the widespread Barramundi and Nile perch (though the fish does face threats from human activity), several members of the genus ''Lates'' with relatively restricted African or Asian distributions are themselves considered

threatened A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...

Etymology

The generic name ''Lates'' derives from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

''latēre'' (to be hidden).

Description

These fishes range in size from less than in maximum overall length, the largest species reaching weights up to . They all have the characteristic centropomid shape, with the two-part

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

and general percoid form. All species are

carnivorous A carnivore , or meat-eater (Latin, ''caro'', genitive ''carnis'', meaning meat or "flesh" and ''vorare'' meaning "to devour"), is an animal or plant whose nutrition and energy requirements are met by consumption of animal tissues (mainly mu ...

, preying on aquatic

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

s and other fish in a wide variety of habitats.

Distribution and habitat

These fishes are native to freshwater and marine waters of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

, and the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. Several species are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only 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 foun ...

to the

Rift Valley lakes The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...

in Africa.

Taxonomy

Extant species

Currently, 11 recognized species are placed in this genus: * ''

Lates angustifrons The Tanganyika lates (''Lates angustifrons'')is a species of lates perch endemic to Lake Tanganyika. It is a widespread predator on other fishes. This species can reach a length of SL and the greatest recorded weight is . This species is im ...

Boulenger Boulenger is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Benjamin Boulenger (born 1990), French footballer * Edward George Boulenger (1888–1946), British zoologist, director of aquarium at London Zoo * George Albert Boulenger (1858– ...

, 1906 (Tanganyika lates) * ''

Lates calcarifer The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the Indo ...

'' (

Bloch Bloch is a surname of German origin. Notable people with this surname include: A *Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881–1925), Austrian entrepreneur *Albert Bloch (1882–1961), American painter *Alexandre Bloch (1857–1919), French painter *Alfred Bloch ( ...

, 1790) (barramundi) * ''

Lates japonicus The Japanese lates (''Lates japonicus''), also known as the ''akame'' (from the Japanese , literally "red eye") or Japanese barramundi, is a species of fish found in Japan. A bottom-dweller restricted to estuarine habitats and large rivers in the ...

'' Katayama & Y. Taki, 1984 (Japanese lates) (Japanese barramundi) * '' Lates lakdiva'' Pethiyagoda & A. C. Gill, 2012 * ''

Lates longispinis ''Lates longispinis'', also known as the Rudolf lates or Turkana perch, is a species of latid fish that is endemic to Lake Turkana (formerly known as Lake Rudolf) in Kenya and Ethiopia. It grows to in length. ''Lates longispinis'' is important ...

'' Worthington, 1932 (Rudolf lates) * '' Lates macrophthalmus'' Worthington, 1929 (Albert lates) * '' Lates mariae''

Steindachner Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner descri ...

, 1909 (bigeye lates) * '' Lates microlepis'' Boulenger, 1898 (forktail lates) * ''

Lates niloticus The Nile perch (''Lates niloticus''), also known as the African snook, Goliath perch, African barramundi, Goliath barramundi, Giant lates or the Victoria perch, is a species of freshwater fish in family Latidae of order Perciformes. It is wides ...

'' (

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

, 1758) (Nile perch) * '' Lates stappersii'' (Boulenger, 1914) (sleek lates) * '' Lates uwisara'' Pethiyagoda & A. C. Gill, 2012

Extinct species

Extinct species within this genus include: * '' Lates arambourgi'' Stewart & Murray, 2008 -

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

of Ethiopia * '' Lates bispinosus'' Gaudant & Sen, 1979 -

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

of Turkey * ?'' Lates croaticus'' Gorjanović-Kramberger, 1902 - Miocene of Croatia * ?'' Lates gregarius'' Bannikov, 1992 - late Miocene of Moldova * ?'' Lates macropterus''

Bassani Bassani is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Axel Bassani (born 1999), Italian motorcycle racer * Edvin Liverić-Bassani (born 1970), Croatian theatre, television, film actor, pancer, performer and cultural manager * ...

, 1889 -

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

of Italy * ?'' Lates karungae'' Greenwood, 1951 -

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

of Kenya * '' Lates odessanus'' Kovalchuk, Otero, Barkaszi, Murray & Divay, 2023 - latest Miocene of Ukraine * '' Lates partschi'' Heckel, 1856 - mid-Miocene of Austria * '' Lates qatraniensis'' Murray & Attia 2004 -

Early Oligocene The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two age (geology), ages or the lower of two stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Oligocene epoch (geology), Epoch/series (stratigraphy), Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded b ...

of Egypt Extinct species within this genus lived from the early

epoch to the present. Fossils have been found in Africa (Libya, Egypt, Kenya, Tunisia, Chad, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, and Sudan), Saudi Arabia, and Slovakia. Earlier specimens from the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

are now placed in their own genus, ''

Eolates ''Eolates'' ("dawn ''Lates''") is an extinct genus of prehistoric lates perch from the Paleogene of Europe. It contains three species, two marine and one freshwater, known from the early-middle Eocene and Chattian, Late Oligocene. The following ...

''. Prehistoric ''Lates'' appear to have had significant species diversity in the marine basins of the Mediterranean and Paratethys, but appear to have been significantly affected by salinity fluctuations, leading to their eventual extinction. In the present day, the only surviving ''Lates'' in this region are ''L. niloticus'' in estuarine habitats in North Africa.

References

{{Authority control Latidae Taxa named by Georges Cuvier Eocene fish Extant Rupelian first appearances