The whitenose pigfish (''Perryena leucometopon'') is a species 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 h ...

belonging to the

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

Congiopodidae Congiopodidae, commonly known as pigfishes, horsefishes and racehorses, is a family of ray-finned fish classified with in the order Scorpaeniformes. These fishes are native to the Southern Hemisphere. Taxonomy Congiopodidae was first formally ...

, the horsefishes or pigfishes. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to the waters off southern and western Australia. It is the only species in the

monotypic 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 "unispe ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Perryena'' and the classification of that genus in the family Congiopodidae is not universally agreed upon.

Taxonomy

The whitenose pigfish was first formally described in 1922 as ''Congiopodus leucometopon'' by the British-born Australian

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

, ichthyologist,

herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians ( gymnophiona)) and rep ...

, and ornithologist Edgar Ravenswood Waite with the type locality given as the beach at Glenelg on

Gulf St Vincent Gulf St Vincent, sometimes referred to as St Vincent Gulf, St Vincent's Gulf or Gulf of St Vincent, is the eastern of two large inlets of water on the southern coast of Australia, in the state of South Australia, the other being the larger S ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. In 1940

Gilbert Percy Whitley Gilbert Percy Whitley (9 June 1903 – 18 July 1975) was a British-born Australian ichthyologist and malacologist who was Curator of Fishes at the Australian Museum in Sydney for about 40 years. He was born at Swaythling, Southampton, England ...

reclassified this species in the monotypic genus ''Perryena''. A recent study placed the whitenose pigfish into an expanded stonefish clade, the Synanceiidae, because all of these fish have a lachrymal sabre that can project a switch-blade-like mechanism out from underneath their eye. Other classify it within the monogeneric family Perryenidae but the 5th edition of '' Fishes of the World'' retains this taxon within the family Congiopodidae.

Etymology

The whitenose pigfish was given the specific name ''leucometopon'' by Waite, this is a compound of ''leuco'', which means, "white" and ''metopon'', meaning "forehead", an allusion to the white patch at the anterior part of the head. The genus name of ''Perryena'' was coined by Whitley and honours George Perry, the English naturalist who originally named the genus '' Congiopodus'', which Waite had originally classified this species in.

Description

The whitenose pigfish has a dorsal fin which starts over the centre of the eye and which contains 15 spines, with the fourth spine being the longest, and 9 soft rays. Unlike the species in the gneus ''Congiopodus'' there are 3 spines, as opposed to none, in the anal fin and 6 or 7 soft rays. There are no scales on the skin. The forehead, first dorsal-fin spine, the anterior part of the snout and the tip of the chin are white, separated from the dark brown remainder of the head and body by a black stripe. This is a small species in which the type specimens were and in length.

Distribution and habitat

The whitenose pigfish is endemic to southern and western Australia where there have been scattered records from the central coast of South Australia and off the southern and western coasts of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

as far north as

Port Denison Port Denison is a town of 3000 residents in the Mid West region of Western Australia. Its local government area is the Shire of Irwin and it is located southwest of Dongara on the Indian Ocean coast. History Port Denison was initially known ...

. It is a reef associated, benthic species found on the continental shelf.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1662072 Congiopodidae Monotypic fish genera Fish described in 1922 Taxa named by Edgar Ravenswood Waite Taxa named by Gilbert Percy Whitley