''Belone'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
of
needlefish common in
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...
and marine waters. It is one of ten genera in the family Belonidae.
Species
Three recognised
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
are in this genus:
* ''
Belone belone
The garfish (''Belone belone''), also known as the garpike or sea needle, is a pelagic, oceanodromous needlefish found in brackish and marine waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Black, and Baltic Seas.
Description
The ...
''
(Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
, 1761) (garfish)
* ''
Belone euxini
''Belone euxini'' is a species of needlefish which is endemic to the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and Sea of Marmara. Many authorities treat this taxon as a subspecies of ''Belone belone
The garfish (''Belone belone''), also known as the garpike o ...
''
Günther, 1866
* ''
Belone svetovidovi
The short-beaked garfish (''Belone svetovidovi'') is an uncommon species of needlefish in marine waters of the eastern Atlantic Ocean. This pelagic needlefish is present off the coasts of Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, and po ...
''
Collette & Parin, 1970 (short-beaked garfish)
Etymology
Georges Cuvier erected the genus by using the
specific name of Linnaeus's ''Esox belone'' in
tautonymy
A tautonym is a scientific name of a species in which both parts of the name have the same spelling, such as ''Rattus rattus''. The first part of the name is the name of the genus and the second part is referred to as the ''specific epithet'' in ...
, the word ''belone'' is
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
for a needlefish and is thought to have originally referred to the
greater pipefish
The greater pipefish (''Syngnathus acus'') is a pipefish of the family Syngnathidae. It is a seawater fish and the type species of the genus ''Syngnathus''.
Etymology
The genus name ''Syngnathus'' derives from the Greek, ''syn'', ''symphysis'' m ...
.
References
External links
*
*
Belonidae
Ray-finned fish genera
Taxa named by Georges Cuvier
{{Beloniformes-stub