''Onigocia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family

Platycephalidae The Platycephalidae are a family of marine fish, most commonly referred to as flatheads. They are relatives of the popular lionfish, belonging to the order Scorpaeniformes. Taxonomy Platycephalidae was first proposed as a family in 1839 by the E ...

, the flatheads. They are found in the

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

region.

Taxonomy

''Onigoia'' was first proposed as a genus in 1913 by the American ichthyologists

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

William Francis Thompson William Francis Thompson (born St. Cloud, Minnesota 1888, died 7 November 1965) was an American ichthyologist and fisheries scientist. He researched the exploitation and management of the stocks of Pacific halibut for the fisheries department ...

with ''Platycephalus macrolepis'', which had been described in 1925 by Pieter Bleeker from Nagasaki, as its type species. This genus 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 Playtcephalidae, the flatheads which 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 ...

'' classifies within 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 ...

Platycephaloidei 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 ...

Scorpaeniformes. The genus name ''Onigocia'' is a latinisation of ''onigogochi'' which translates as “devil flathead” the Japanese common name for ''O. spinosa''. ''Gochi'', which is also spelled ''kochi'', is a general name in Japanese for flatheads and dragonets.

Species

There are currently 9 recognized species in this genus:

Characteristics

''Onigocia'' is distinguished from other flathead genera by having finely serrated suborbital ridges and in the typically having less than 40 pored scales in the

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

. These are small flatheads with the largest species being the midget flathead (''O. spinosa''), with a maximum published total length of , while the smallest is ''O. grandisquama'', which has a maximum published

standard 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 m ...

of .

References

Marine fish genera Platycephalidae Taxa named by David Starr Jordan {{Scorpaeniformes-stub