''Larimichthys'' is a genus of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

es belonging to the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Sciaenidae Sciaenidae are a family of fish in the order Acanthuriformes. They are commonly called drums or croakers in reference to the repetitive throbbing or drumming sounds they make. The family consists of about 286 to 298 species in about 66 to 70 gen ...

, the drums and croakers. These fishes, commonly known as yellow croakers, are found in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Larimichthys'' was first proposed as a

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 "unispec ...

in 1905 by the American

ichthyologists 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 October ...

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...

and

Edwin Chapin Starks Edwin Chapin Starks (born in Baraboo, Wisconsin on January 25, 1867; died December 29, 1932) was an ichthyologist most associated with Stanford University. He was known as an authority on the osteology of fish. He also did studies of fish of the Pu ...

when they described ''Larimichthys rathbunae'' from Korea. This genus has been 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 ...

Otolithinae by some workers, but the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011) is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of the diversity and classification of the ...

'' does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae which it places in the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Acanthuriformes Acanthuriformes is an order of ray-finned fishes, part of the Percomorpha clade. Some authorities place the fishes in the order within the Acanthuriformes in the suborders Acanthuroidea and Percoidea of the order Perciformes. Classification The ...

Etymology

''Larimichthys'' is a combination of '' Larimus'', as this genus was considered to be closely related close to that genus but being different in the possession of

cycloid scale A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as w ...

s, non-uniform teeth, weak spines in 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 ...

and a more cavernous head, with ''ichthys'', meaning "fish".

Species

''Larimichthys'' has 4 valid species classified within it: * ''

Larimichthys crocea ''Larimichthys crocea'', commonly called the large yellow croaker, yellow croaker or croceine croaker, is a species of saltwater fish in the family Sciaenidae, native to the marginal seas of East Asia from western Japan and Korea to the Yellow S ...

'' ( J. Richardson, 1846) (large yellow croaker) * '' Larimichthys pamoides'' (

Munro A Munro () is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis ...

, 1964) (southern yellow croaker) * ''

Larimichthys polyactis ''Larimichthys polyactis'', called the redlip croaker, small yellow croaker, little yellow croaker or yellow corvina, is a species of croaker native to the western Pacific, generally in temperate waters such as the East China Sea and the Yellow ...

'' (

Bleeker Bleeker is a Dutch occupational surname. Bleeker is an old spelling of ''(linnen)bleker'' ("linen bleacher").Larimichthys terengganui ''Larimichthys'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes, commonly known as yellow croakers, are found in the Western Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Larimichthys'' was first propo ...

'' Seah,

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...

, Mazlan & Chao, 2015

Characteristics

''Larimichthys'' croakers are distinguished from other genera of Sciaenids by the carrot-shaped

swimbladder The swim bladder, gas bladder, fish maw, or air bladder is an internal gas-filled organ that contributes to the ability of many bony fish (but not cartilaginous fish) to control their buoyancy, and thus to stay at their current water depth w ...

having horn-like or tube-like appendages which begin on either the headward or tailward part of the swim bladder. The first appendage, originating closest to the head, enters the head and branches between the sull and the upper gill arch. The swimbladder appendages have limbs on their upper and lower sides. The

otolith An otolith ( grc-gre, ὠτο-, ' ear + , ', a stone), also called statoconium or otoconium or statolith, is a calcium carbonate structure in the saccule or utricle of the inner ear, specifically in the vestibular system of vertebrates. The sa ...

has a slightly oblique head of its sulcus which also has a shallow tail. They do not have a

barbel Barbel may refer to: *Barbel (anatomy), a whisker-like organ near the mouth found in some fish (notably catfish, loaches and cyprinids) and turtles *Barbel (fish), a common name for certain species of fish **''Barbus barbus'', a species of cyprinid ...

on the chin and the scales on the head and front part of the body are

cycloid In geometry, a cycloid is the curve traced by a point on a circle as it rolls along a straight line without slipping. A cycloid is a specific form of trochoid and is an example of a roulette, a curve generated by a curve rolling on another curve ...

. They have between 33 and 36 soft rays on the

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

. The largest species on the genus is ''L. crocea'' whichhas a maximum published

total length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology. Overall length * Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish ...

of while the smallest is ''L. pamoides'' which has a maximum published total length of .

Fisheries

The genus includes major fishery species in the Northwest Pacific, principally by China: with a catch of 438 thousand tonnes in 2012, small yellow croaker ''

'' is 24th among the 70 "principal" capture species, and also the annual catches of large yellow croaker ''

'' are significant at 70 thousand tonnes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q594742 Sciaenidae Taxa named by David Starr Jordan