''Xenistius'' is a

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 ...

of grunts native to the eastern

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

Species

The currently recognized species in this genus are: * '' Xenistius californiensis'' ( Steindachner, 1876) (Californian salema) * '' Xenistius peruanus''

Hildebrand Hildebrand is a character from Germanic heroic legend. ''Hildebrand'' is the modern German form of the name: in Old High German it is ''Hiltibrant'' and in Old Norse ''Hildibrandr''. The word ''hild'' means "battle" and ''brand'' means "sword". ...

, 1946

Systematics

The genus ''Haemulon'' was determined to be paraphyletic in molecular studies which showed ''

Haemulon chrysargyreum ''Haemulon chrysargyreum'', the smallmouth grunt, bronze grunt, or yellowstripe grunt, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grunt belonging to the family Haemulidae. It is found in the western Atlantic Ocean. Description ''H. chrysargyreu ...

'' clustered with ''Xenistius californianus''. The genus '' Brachygenys'' which had been created by

Felipe Poey Felipe Poey (May 26, 1799 – January 28, 1891) was a Cuban zoologist. Biography Poey was born in Havana, the son of French and Spanish parents. He spent several years (1804 to 1807) of his life in Pau then studied law in Madrid. He became a ...

in 1868 was revived to include these species and ensure the

monophyly In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

of ''Haemulon''. The genus also includes the other species in ''Xenistius'' and '' Xenocys''. These changes are recognised by ''

Catalog of Fishes Catalog of Fishes is a comprehensive on-line database and reference work on the scientific names of fish species and genera. It is global in its scope and is hosted by the California Academy of Sciences. It has been compiled and is continuously u ...

'', making ''Xenistius'' a synonym of ''Brachygenys'', but not yet by Fishbase.

References

Haemulinae Taxa named by David Starr Jordan Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert {{Perciformes-stub