The panga (''Pterogymnus laniarus''), or panga seabream is a species of marine

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 ...

belonging to the

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 ...

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 ...

, which includes the seabreams and porgies. It is the only species in the

monospecific genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

''Pterogymnus''. This species is

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 coasts of South Africa. The panga is an important species in commercial line fisheries off South Africa.

Taxonomy

The panga was first formally described as ''Pagrus laniarius'' in 1830 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 ...

Achille Valenciennes Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoology, zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. His study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasi ...

in volume 6 of '' Histoire naturelle des poissons'', its type locality was given as the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

in South Africa. In 1938

James Leonard Brierley Smith James Leonard Brierley Smith (26 September 1897 – 8 January 1968) was a South African ichthyology, ichthyologist, organic chemist, and university professor. He was the first to identify a taxidermied fish as a coelacanth, at the time thought t ...

reclassified this species in the monospecific genus ''Pterogymnus''. This taxon is placed in the family Sparidae within the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

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 ...

by the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

''. Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Sparinae, but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.

Etymology

The panga has the genus name ''Pterogymnus'' which combines ''ptero'', meaning “fin”, and ''gymnus'', meaning “naked”, a reference to the lack of scales on the soft rayed parts of the

dorsal Dorsal (from Latin ''dorsum'' ‘back’) may refer to: * Dorsal (anatomy), an anatomical term of location referring to the back or upper side of an organism or parts of an organism * Dorsal, positioned on top of an aircraft's fuselage The fus ...

and

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 ...

s, when compared to '' Cymatoceps''. The specific name, ''laniarius'', means “butcher” or “pertaining to butchers”, an allusion Valenciennes did not explain.

Description

left, For sale at a fish market in Pretoria ">Pretoria.html" ;"title="fish market in Pretoria">fish market in Pretoria The panga has the area between the eyes and the flange on the preoperculum scaled. The lower jaw has 2 rows of Molar (tooth), molar-like teeth. The dorsal fin has 12 spines and 10 soft rays while the

has 3 spines and 8 soft rays. There is a scaly sheath at the base of the soft rayed parts of both the dorsal and anal fin but no scales on the soft rayed part of these fins. The compressed body is ovoid in shape with a depth that fits into its

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

2.3 to 2.5 times. The dorsal profile of the head is smoothly convex and the eye is large with the rear edge of the preorbital bone having a wave-like shape and is not covered by the scales of the cheek. The overall colour of the body is red or pink, lighter in colour on the lower body, with 5 or 6 indistinct bluish, horizontal lines underneath the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelia ...

. This species has a maximum

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 , although is more typical.

Distribution and habitat

The panga is endemic to South Africa where it occurs in the southeastern Atlantic Ocean in

False Bay False Bay (Afrikaans: ''Valsbaai'') is a body of water in the Atlantic Ocean between the mountainous Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the extreme south-west of South Africa. The mouth of the bay faces south and is demarc ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

Beira, Mozambique Beira () is the capital and largest List of cities in Mozambique, city of Sofala Province, in the central region of Mozambique. Beira is where the Pungwe River meets the Indian Ocean. It is the fourth-largest city by population in Mozambique, af ...

in the southwestern Indian Ocean. This species is found mostly on deep, low. topographically complex reefs and sometimes over areas of mud and sand as deep as .

Biology

The panga is a predatory species in which the adults feed on benthic invertebrates, mainly

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 with

polychaete Polychaeta () is a paraphyletic class of generally marine Annelid, annelid worms, common name, commonly called bristle worms or polychaetes (). Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called c ...

brittle star Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomot ...

s and fishes less important as prey. The juveniles feed largely on

mysid Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in thi ...

s. This species is a rudimentary hermaphrodite. i.e. the gonads contain both male and female reproductive tissue but is a late gonochorist in which sexual maturity is attained at around 4 or 5 years old. They spawn mainly at the

Agulhas Bank The Agulhas Bank (, from Portuguese for Cape Agulhas, ''Cabo das Agulhas'', "Cape of Needles") is a broad, shallow part of the southern African continental shelf which extends up to south of Cape Agulhas before falling steeply to the abyssal pla ...

and spawning occurs throughout the year.

Fisheries

The panga is an important species for the offshore commercial line fishery in the southern

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

where it made up 16.5% of the total landings from 1985 to 2007. It is also an important part of the South African demersal inshore trawl fishery where it made up 63% of the landings between 1992 and 1995 and 11% of the landing from the demersal deep sea trawl fishery in the southern Eastern Cape and Western Cape.

References

External links

FAO's Species Fact Sheet about ''Megalaspis cordyla''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q784460 , from2=Q17152843 Sparidae Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Fish of the Indian Ocean Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes Fish described in 1830