The threefin velvetfish (''Neoaploactis tridorsalis'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a velvetfish 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 ...

. This species is found the western Pacific Ocean where it has been found on reefs. This species grows to a length of TL. This species is the only known member of its genus.

Taxonomy

The threefin velvetfish was first formally described in 1991 by the ichthyologists

William N. Eschmeyer William Neil Eschmeyer, also known as Bill Eschmeyer, is an American ichthyologist. He is the founder and developer of the database and reference work Catalog of Fishes, hosted by the California Academy of Sciences and available both on-line and i ...

and

Gerald R. Allen Gerald Robert "Gerry" Allen (born March 26, 1942 in Los Angeles, California) is an American-born Australian ichthyologist. His career began in 1963, when he spent a semester at the University of Hawaii, where he also received a PhD in marine zo ...

with the type locality given as One Tree Island off Queensland, Australia. When they described this new species Eschmeyer and Allen classified it in the new monotypic genus ''Neoaploactis''. This taxon 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, ''Neoaploactis'' prefixed the type genus of this family, ''

Aploactis The dusky velvetfish (''Aploactis aspera'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a velvetfish belonging to the family Aploactinidae. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Aploactis''. This species is found in the western Pacific Ocean ...

'' with ''neo'', meaning "new", a reference to the un usual form of this taxon in comparison to other velvetfishes. 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 ...

''tridorsalis'', means "three dorsals" and is a reference to the three dorsal fins shown by this species.

Description

The threefin velvetfish has two divergent spines on the lacrimal bone and has 5 blunt spines on the margin of the preoperculum, the lower ones being smaller than the upper. The dorsal fin has its origin over the middle of the eye. The first dorsal fin has four spines separated by scales from the second dorsal fin which has a deep notch between the 7th and 8th spines, creating the impression that there are three separate dorsal fins. The scales are very modified, with a robust spine-like flange or a shelf-like projection in their centre set at right angles to the body and supported by an elongated rhomboid base within the skin. There are a total of 12 spines and 9 soft rays in the dorsal fin 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 2 spines and 8 soft rays. The maximum published total length of this species is . The overall colour is dark to pale grey or pale brown , mottled with irregular white spots and blotches particularly on the fins. There is a pale band to the rear of the eyes, and they sometimes have an orange head.

Distribution and habitat

The threefin velvetfish is found in the western Pacific Ocean. It has been recorded from Rottnest Island and

Shark Bay Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...

on the western coast of Western Australia, Point Dover in the Great Australian Bight of Western Australia, from Townsville to One Tree Island in the Capricorn Group of the southern Great Barrier Reef off Queensland and from Victor Harbor to

Spencer Gulf The Spencer Gulf is the westernmost and larger of two large inlets (the other being Gulf St Vincent) on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, facing the Great Australian Bight. It spans from the Cape Catastrophe and ...

in South Australia. It has also been reported from the new Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the

Chesterfield Islands The Chesterfield Islands (''îles Chesterfield'' in French) are a French archipelago of New Caledonia located in the Coral Sea, northwest of Grande Terre, the main island of New Caledonia. The archipelago is 120 km long and 70 km ...

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. It can be found at depths between in areas of sand and rubble in the vicinity of reefs, typically at depths of less than .

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3132405, from2=Q1591672 Aploactinidae Fish described in 1978 Monotypic fish genera Taxa named by William N. Eschmeyer Taxa named by Gerald R. Allen