The mangrove waspfish (''Vespicula trachinoides''), also known as the goblinfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a

waspfish Tetraroginae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes, commonly known as waspfishes or sailback scorpionfishes, belonging to the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are native to the Indian Ocean and the W ...

belonging to 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 ...

Tetraroginae, which 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 ...

as part of the family

Scorpaenidae The Scorpaenidae (also known as scorpionfish) are a family of mostly marine fish that includes many of the world's most venomous species. As their name suggests, scorpionfish have a type of "sting" in the form of sharp spines coated with venom ...

, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. This species occurs 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

The mangrove waspfish was first formally described as a species in 1829 as ''Apistus trachinoides'' by the French zoologist

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, Baron Cuvier (; 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier, was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuvier ...

with the type locality given as Java in Indonesia. In 1905 the American

ichthyologist 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 Octobe ...

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 Alvin Seale described a new species from Japan which they called ''Prosopodasys gogorzae'' and in 1910 Jordan and Robert Earl Richardson described a new genus, '' Vespicula'' for ''P. gogorzae''. In 2001 Sergey Anatolyevich Mandrytsa proposed that ''Prosopodasys'' was a synonym of ''Vespicula''. Various workers had then included the species ''Apistus bottae'', ''Apistus dracaena'', ''Prosopodasys cypho'', ''Apistes depressifrons'' , ''Apistus trachinoides'' and ''Apistus zollingeri'' in the genus ''Vespicula''. More recently ''A. depressifrons'' was placed in the monotypic genus ''

Neovespicula The leaf goblinfish (''Neovespicula depressifrons'') is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a waspfish belonging to the subfamily Tetraroginae, which is classified as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. T ...

'', ''A. dracaena'' in '' Pseudovespicula'', and this species into '' Trichosomus'' with ''A. bottae'' and ''A. gogorzae'' being regarded as

junior synonym The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...

s of this species. As the type species of ''Vespicula'' is regarded as a junior synonym of ''T. trachinoides'', it follows that ''Vespicula'' is a

of ''Trichosomus''.

Fishbase FishBase is a global species database of fish species (specifically finfish). It is the largest and most extensively accessed online database on adult finfish on the web.

still recognises ''Vespicula'' with 3 species, but '' Catalog of Fishes'' recognises ''Trichosomus'' and places the other two species in ''Pseudovespicula''. 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 ...

''Trachinoides'' means "like '' Trachinus''", the weever genus.

Description

The mangrove waspfish has a laterally compressed body which is covered in small scales. The dorsal fin contains between 13 and 16 spines, with the first 3 spines apparently separated from rest of dorsal fin but they are connected to it by a very low membrane, and 3.5 to 5.5 soft rays. The origin of the dorsal fin sits between the rear margin of the orbit and the posterir margin of the

preoperculum This glossary of ichthyology is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in ichthyology, the study of fishes. A B C ...

. 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 3 spines and 3.5 to 4.5 soft rays. The

pelvic fin Pelvic fins or ventral fins are paired fins located on the ventral surface of fish. The paired pelvic fins are homologous to the hindlimbs of tetrapods. Structure and function Structure In actinopterygians, the pelvic fin consists of two en ...

s have 1 spine and 4 soft rays. The snout has a length equal to or longer than diameter of the eye. This species attains a maximum

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 . The body has a mottled pattern of black and greenish yellow blotches while soft-rayed portions of dorsal and anal fins have a wide black band.

Distribution and habitat

The mangrove waspfish is found in the Indo-Pacific from the Mergui Archipelago off Myanmar east to the Philippines and

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

and north to Vietnam and Hainan. This species ca be found in estuarine areas, including mangrove creeks over substrates of soft sand and shell fragments.

Biology

The mangrove waspfish has venomous spines.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q687909 Tetraroginae Fish described in 1829 Taxa named by Georges Cuvier