''Kanekonia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, velvetfishes belonging to the family

Aploactinidae Little velvetfishes or simply velvetfishes are a family, the Aploactinidae, of marine ray-finned fishes classified within the order Scorpaeniformes. They are small fish that have skin with a velvet texture. They live on the sea bottom close to t ...

. The genus is found in the western Pacific and eastern Indian oceans.

Taxonomy

''Kanekonia'' was originally described as a genus in 1915 by the Japanese

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, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Shigeho Tanaka when he was describing the new species ''Kanekonia florida'' from Japan, its type species by

monotypy 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 "unispec ...

. The genus ''Kanekonia'' is

classified Classified may refer to: General *Classified information, material that a government body deems to be sensitive *Classified advertising or "classifieds" Music *Classified (rapper) (born 1977), Canadian rapper *The Classified, a 1980s American roc ...

within the family Aploactinidae in the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Scorpaenoidei within the order Scorpaeniformes, although this family is also treated as a subfamily of the

stonefish ''Synanceia'' is a genus of ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Synanceiinae, the stonefishes, which is classified within the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and relatives. Stonefishes are venomous, dangerous, and fatal to huma ...

family

Synanceiidae Synanceiinae is a subfamily of venomous ray-finned fishes, waspfishes, which is classified as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are found in the Indo-Pacific oceans. They are primarily marin ...

within the Scorpaenoidei, which in turn is treated as a

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

within the order Perciformes. The name of the genus, ''Kanekonia'' honours Ichiro Kaneko, who supplied Tanaka with fishes from a fish market in Nagasaki, Japan, including the holotype of ''K. florida''.

Species

There are currently four recognized species in this genus: * '' Kanekonia florida'' S. Tanaka, 1915 * '' Kanekonia leichhardti'' J. W. Johnson, 2013 (Leichhardt's Velvetfish) * ''

Kanekonia pelta ''Kanekonia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, velvetfishes belonging to the family Aploactinidae. The genus is found in the western Pacific and eastern Indian oceans. Taxonomy ''Kanekonia'' was originally described as a genus in 1915 ...

'' Poss, 1982 * '' Kanekonia queenslandica'' Whitley, 1952 (Deep velvetfish)

Characteristics

''Kanekonia'' velvetfishes are characterised by having a short, deep body with an extremely large head and mouth, with a protruding lower jaw. The

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

has 5 blunt spines. The scales take the form of outwardly directed spines, similar to tiny papillae with those on the back and flanks being the largest. They have a continuous dorsal fin which has its origin above the rear part of the eye The spiny part of this fin is longer than the soft-rayed part. The dorsal fin has 11 to 13 spines and 7 to 10 sof 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 ...

has a 1 or 2 spines and between 7 and 9 soft rays. The fin spines do not have venom glands. These are small fishes, the largest species is the deep velveltfish (''K. queenslandica'') which reaches a maximum total length of .

Distribution and habitat

''Kanekonia'' velvetfishes are found in the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans. These fishes are

demersal The demersal zone is the part of the sea or ocean (or deep lake) consisting of the part of the water column near to (and significantly affected by) the seabed and the benthos. The demersal zone is just above the benthic zone and forms a layer of ...

and are found mainly on sandy substrates.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1591706 Aploactinidae Taxa named by Shigeho Tanaka