''Pogonoscorpius'' 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 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 ...

Scorpaenidae The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family (biology), family of mostly ocean, marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp ...

, the scorpionfishes. It is a monotypic genus, its ony species is ''Pogonoscorpius sechellensis'' which occurs in the western Indian Ocean in the seas around the Seychelles. It is a little known species and, as of 2018, only 2 specimens were known from the Seychelles. It may also occur in the

Coral Sea The Coral Sea () is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean, South Pacific off the northeast coast of Australia, and classified as an Interim Biogeographic Regionalisation for Australia, interim Australian bioregion. The Coral Sea extends down t ...

and off Japan and it has been suggested that this taxon is a synonym of '' Rhinopias argoliba''. Others treat it as a valid species and state that it is endemic to the western Indian Ocean. ''Pgonoscorpius'' was first formally described as a genus in 1908 by the British

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Charles Tate Regan Charles Tate Regan (1 February 1878 – 12 January 1943) was a British ichthyology, ichthyologist, working mainly around the beginning of the 20th century. He did extensive work on fish classification schemes. Born in Sherborne, Dorset, he was ...

when he described its only species ''P. sechellensis'', of which Regan gave the type locality as from a depth of 37 fathoms in the Seychelles. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

was collected by

John Stanley Gardiner John Stanley Gardiner (1872–1946) was a British zoologist. Biography Stanley, as he was known, was the younger son of John Jephson Gardiner and Sarah McTier. He was born in Jordanstown (Belfast) in 1872 – two years after his brother Arthur. ...

. The genus name is a compound of ''pogon'' meaning "beard", an allusion to the well developed mental barbel, and ''scorpius'', a "scorpion" indicating that this is a scorpionfish. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

indicates that its origin is the Seychelles. ''Pogonoscorpius sechellensis'' is found at depths down to . This species reaches a length of SL. ''Pogonoscorpius sechellensis'' is similar to the species in the genus ''

Rhinopias ''Rhinopias'' is a genus of marine Actinopterygii, ray-finned fish belonging to the Family (biology), family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes. The species in this genus are found in the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Tax ...

'' but differ in colouration and in the possession of a mental barbel. It has 12 spines and 9 soft rays in the dorsal fin, the last ray being split and is sometimes counted as 1.5 rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and 5 soft rays. The colour is described a yellowish with reddish tinged fins.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2315841 Scorpaenini Taxa named by Charles Tate Regan Fish described in 1908 Monotypic fish genera Monotypic marine fish genera Monotypic ray-finned fish genera