''Torquigener perlevis'', commonly known as the spineless toadfish, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

in the family

Tetraodontidae Tetraodontidae is a family of primarily marine and estuarine fish of the order Tetraodontiformes. The family includes many familiar species variously called pufferfish, puffers, balloonfish, blowfish, blowies, bubblefish, globefish, swellfis ...

. It is found in the coastal waters off northern and eastern Australia from the

Gulf of Carpentaria The Gulf of Carpentaria (, ) is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the eastern Arafura Sea (the body of water that lies between Australia and New Guinea). The northern boundary is ...

to the Georges River and Botany Bay in Sydney, New South Wales.

James Douglas Ogilby James Douglas Ogilby (16 February 1853 – 11 August 1925) was an Australian ichthyologist and herpetologist. Ogilby was born in Belfast, Ireland, and was the son of zoologist William Ogilby and his wife Adelaide, née Douglas. He received h ...

described the spineless toadfish in 1908 from a specimen collected in Queensland. ''Torquigener perlevis'' has an elongate body with a rounded back and flattened belly. It has a small mouth at its apex with thin lips that have numerous papillae and a prominent chin. It has mottled grey and brown upperparts marked with dark brown. It is distinguished from other members of the genus by its lack of spines.

References

External links

Fishes of Australia : ''Torquigener perlevis''
{{DEFAULTSORT:toadfish, spineless perlevis Marine fish of Eastern Australia spineless toadfish