Argyrops

Argyrops is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sparidae, the seabreams and porgies. These fishes are found in the coasts of Indian Ocean and near Australia.

Argyrops
Argyrops spinifer
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Acanthuriformes
Family:	Sparidae
Genus:	Argyrops Swainson, 1839
Type species
Sparus spinifer Forsskål, 1775[1]
Synonyms[1]
Dulosparus Fowler, 1933

Taxonomy

Argyrops was first formally proposed as a subgenus of Chrysophrys by the English zoologist William John Swainson with its type species, by monotypy, being Sparus spinifer. S. spinifer had been described in 1775 by Peter Forsskål with its type locality given as Jeddah. This genus is placed in the family Sparidae within the order Spariformes by the 5th edition of Fishes of the World.^[2] Some authorities classify this genus in the subfamily Sparinae,^[3] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sparidae.^[2]

Etymology

Argyrops was not explained by Swainson but is may combine argyros, meaning "silver", and ops, meaning "face", the type species has a silvery lower jaw.^[4]

Species

Argyrops contains the following species:^[5]

• Argyrops bleekeri Oshima, 1927 (Taiwan tai)
• Argyrops caeruleops Iwatsuki & Heemstra, 2018 (Bluesnout soldierbream)
• Argyrops filamentosus (Valenciennes, 1830) (Soldierbream)
• Argyrops flavops Iwatsuki & Heemstra, 2018 (Yellow-snout soldierbream)
• Argyrops megalommatus (Klunzinger, 1870) (Red Sea soldierbream)
• Argyrops notialis Iwatsuki & Heemstra, 2018 (Australian soldierbream)
• Argyrops spinifer (Forsskål, 1775) (King soldierbream)

Characteristics

Argyrops fishes are characterised by having a very blunt snout and heavy head. The first 1 or 2 dorsal fin spines are short, with a long 3rd spine and occasionally the 4th to the 7th times are elongated into filaments and have a greater length than the head. The front teeth are conical and there are 2 or 3 rows of small molar-like teeth. The area between the eyes is scaly. The flange of the preoperculum is not scaled. The colour of these fishes is frequently reddish.^[6] The largest species in the genus is the king soldierbream (A.spinifer) with a maximum published total length of 80 cm (31 in) while the smallest is the Red Sea soldierbream (A. megalommatus) which has a maximum published standard length of 20.7 cm (8.1 in).^[5]

Distribution

Argyrops seabreams are mainly found in the Indian Ocean from the Red Sea and African coasts east to Australia, with one species A. bleekeri in the Western Pacific Ocean.^[5]

References

1. Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Sparidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
2. Nelson, J.S.; Grande, T.C.; Wilson, M.V.H. (2016). Fishes of the World (5th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 502–506. doi:10.1002/9781119174844. ISBN 978-1-118-34233-6. LCCN 2015037522. OCLC 951899884. OL 25909650M.
3. Parenti, P. (2019). "An annotated checklist of the fishes of the family Sparidae". FishTaxa. 4 (2): 47–98.
4. "Order SPARIFORMES: Families LETHRINIDAE, NEMIPTERIDAE and SPARIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
5. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Argyrops". FishBase. October 2023 version.
6. Yukio Iwatsuki and Phillip C Heemstra (2022). "Family Sparidae". In Phillip C Heemstra; Elaine Heemstra; David A Ebert; Wouter Holleman; and John E Randall (eds.). Coastal Fishes of the Western Indian Ocean (PDF). Vol. 3. South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity. pp. 284–315. ISBN 978-1-990951-32-9.