''Aphareus'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, snappers belonging to the family Lutjanidae. They are native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans from the African coast to the

Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kur ...

Taxonomy

The currently recognized species in this genus are: * ''

Aphareus furca ''Aphareus furca'', the small toothed jobfish, blue smalltooth jobfish, fork-tailed snapper or snapper jobbyfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is found in the Indo-Pacific region. Taxon ...

'' (

Lacépède Lacepede can refer to: * Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756–1825), French naturalist and politician. * Lacepede Bay, a bay in South Australia. * Lacépède, Lot-et-Garonne, a ''commune'' in France * Lacepede Islands, a group of four islands in t ...

, 1801) (small-toothed jobfish) * ''

Aphareus rutilans ''Aphareus rutilans'', the rusty jobfish, ironjaw snapper, red smalltooth job, silvermouth or small tooth jobfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a snapper belonging to the family Lutjanidae. It is found in the Indo-Pacific region. Desc ...

'' G. Cuvier, 1830 (rusty jobfish) ''Aphareus'' is placed in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Etelinae Etelinae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes, one of four subfamilies classified within the Family (biology), family Lutjanidae, the snappers. Genera The subfamily Etelinae contains 5 genera and 24 species: * ''Aphareus (fish), Aphareus' ...

. The genus was created by the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

naturalist Georges Cuvier and he took the name ''Aphareus'' which he stated (in French) was from an “unintelligible and probably corrupt passage from Aristotle, where it seems to designate a fin specific to the female of the tuna” , the name is also similar to the name given to these fishes in the Arabic, ''farès'', although this could be coincidental. In 1913 David Starr Jordan,

John Otterbein Snyder John Otterbein Snyder (August 14, 1867 – August 19, 1943) was an American ichthyologist and professor of zoology at Stanford University. History As a student he met David Starr Jordan who inspired him to enter zoology. He eventually became a zoo ...

and Shigeho Tanaka designated ''Aphareus caerulescens'' as the type species of the genus, this is a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly 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 all ...

of ''A. furca''.

Characteristics

''Apahreus'' snappers are medium-sized Lutjanids which have elongated, fusiform but rather robus bodies. They have tiny teeth in their jaws with no canine-like teeth and they lack any vomerine teeth. They have gill openings which reach relatively far forward to the front of the eye. The area between the eyes is flat. The dorsal fin is continuous with no notch around te junction of the spiny and soft-rayed parts, it has 10 spines and 11 (infrequently 10) soft rays while the

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

contains 3 spines and 8 soft rays. They have long pectoral fins which are a little shorter than head length and which contains 15 or 16 rays. The dorsal and anal fins do not have scales, the caudal fin is forked. The scales on these fish are comparatively small. Their colour can be purplish-brown, blue-grey, or reddish, they may display a silvery sheen on their lower flanks and abdomen.

Distribution and habitat

''Aphareus'' snappers have a wide Indo-Pacific distribution from eastern Africa to the Hawaiian islands. They prefer inshore waters where there are coral reefs and rocky bottoms at depths of around to, possibly, greater than . They can be solitary or occur in small schools.

Fisheries

''Aphareus'' snappers are important foodfish, especially in islands. Fishermen catch them using handlines or bottom longlines. The flesh is considered to be of good quality and normally the catch is sold fresh.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2858215 Etelinae Taxa named by Georges Cuvier