Lethrinidae are a
family
Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...
of
ray-finned fish
Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...
es belonging to the order
Spariformes
Spariformes is an order of ray-finned fishes consisting of six families within the series Percomorpha.
Taxonomy
Spariformes was first used as a taxonomic term in 1860 by the Dutch physician, herpetologist and ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker. Trad ...
commonly known as emperors, emperor breams, and pigface breams.
These fish are found in tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and ''Lethrinus atlanticus'' is also found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. They are
benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...
feeders, consuming
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 small fishes. Some species have
molariform teeth which they use to eat shelled invertebrates, such as
molluscs
Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...
and
crab
Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek language, Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen#Arthropoda, abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the Thorax (arthropo ...
s.
Taxonomy
Lethrinidae was first proposed as a family name by the French
zoologist
Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the structure, embryology, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct, and how they interact with their ecosystems. Zoology is one ...
Charles Lucien Bonaparte
Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857) was a French naturalist and ornithology, ornithologist, and a nephew of Napoleon. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal ...
in 1831.
[ Traditionally this family has been classified within the ]Perciformes
Perciformes (), also called the Acanthopteri, is an order or superorder of ray-finned fish in the clade Percomorpha. ''Perciformes'' means " perch-like". Among the well-known members of this group are perches and darters ( Percidae), and als ...
, as part of the group of families some authorities called the "Sparoid lineage", this included the families Centrarchidae, Nemipteridae, Lethrinidae and Sparidae
Sparidae is a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes, the seabreams and porgies, although they were traditionally classified in the order Perciformes. The over 150 species are found in shallow and deep marine waters in t ...
.Molecular phylogenetics
Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...
as used in more modern classifications has meant that the Spariformes is recognised as a valid order within the Percomorpha
Percomorpha () is an extremely large and diverse clade of ray-finned fish. With more than 17,000 known species (including Scombroidei, tuna, Syngnathiformes, seahorses, gobies, Cichlidae, cichlids, flatfish, Labridae, wrasse, Perciformes, perches ...
containing six families, with the Centrarchidae retained in the Perciformes, and Callanthidae, Sillaginidae and Lobotidae included.synonymous
A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...
with Sparidae and that the Spariformes contains only the remaining three families of the "Sparoid lineage".[
]
Subdivisions
This family has been subdivided into two subfamilies by some authors, the monotypic Lethrininae, containing the genus ''Lethrinus'' and the Monotaxinae, containing the remaining genera. This validity of these subfamilies is not supported by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.[
]
Genera
The following four genera (including 45 species) are classified within the familey Lethrinidae:
Etymology
Lethrinidae takes its name from its type genus
In biological taxonomy, the type genus (''genus typica'') is the genus which defines a biological family and the root of the family name.
Zoological nomenclature
According to the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, "The name-bearin ...
, ''Lethrinus'' which was the name in Greek for fishes in the Sparid genus ''Pagellus
''Pagellus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging the family (biology), family Sparidae, which includes the seabreams and porgies. These fishes are found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the western Indian Ocean. ...
''.
Characteristics
Lethrinidae breams have a continuous 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 ...
which is supported by 10 spines and 9 or 10 soft rays and an anal fin
Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...
that is supported by 3 spines and between 9 and 10 soft rays. They have an emarginate or forked caudal fin
Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...
. The terminal mouth varies in size from small to medium-sized and has thick, fleshy lips and a potrusible upper jaw. There is a row of canine-like teeth on the outer side of the front both jaws with molar-like or conical teeth on the sides and an inner row of bristle like teeth at the front too, there are no teeth on the roof of the mouth.total length
Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fishery biology.
Overall length
Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish measured f ...
of while the smallest are '' Lethrinus mitchelli'' and '' Lethrinus variegatus'' both with a maximum published total length of .[
]
Distribution and habitat
Lethrinidae fishes are found mainly in the tropical Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, with a single species, ''Lethrinus atlanticus'', being found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. They are coastal fishes and are associated with reefs but prefer substrates of sand and rubble.[
]
Biology
Lethrinidae fishes are mostly bottom feeding carnivores and they typically have strong jaws. The teeth type and jaw structure depend on the diet, for example, species such as the humpnose big-eye bream ('' Monotaxis grandoculis'') possesses large, well-developed molar-like teeth with a short, blunt snout and preys largely on molluscs, sea urchins and other hard-shelled benthic invertebrates while species such as ''Lethrinus olivaceus'' has jaws equipped with conical teeth at the sides and a long, sloping snout and its prey is largely other fishes and crustaceans. They are mostly nocturnal feeders and some species undertake diel migrations to feed in different habitats at night from the diurnal habitat. Lethrinids are solitary but some species gather in small aggregations, although they will gather together in large numbers to spawn. Spawning appears to be a night time activity and has been little studied.[
]
Fisheries
Lethrinidae species are an important component of some commercial, artisanal and recreational fisheries and their importance in any fishery varies geographically and over time. The valuable species ti fisheries are the larger and commoner species while the smaller and uncommon species are not valued. They are most commonly caught in Mauritius, the Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula (, , or , , ) or Arabia, is a peninsula in West Asia, situated north-east of Africa on the Arabian plate. At , comparable in size to India, the Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world.
Geographically, the ...
and Fiji.[
]
Gallery
File:Lethrinus olivaceus.jpg, Longface emperor ('' Lethrinus olivaceus'')
File:Gnathodentex aureolineatus.jpg, Striped large-eye bream ('' Gnathodentex aureolineatus'')
File:Monotaxis-grandoculis.JPG, Humpnose big-eye bream ('' Monotaxis grandoculis'')
References
External links
Ichthyological Bulletin; No. 17: Fishes of the family Lethrinidae from the Western Indian Ocean
{{Authority control
Acanthuriformes families
Fish of Hawaii
Taxa named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte