Kentrocapros
Kentrocapros is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Aracanidae, the deepwater boxfishes or temperate boxfishes. These fishes are found in the coastal waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
Taxonomy
Kentrocarpos was first proposed as a monospecific subgenus of Aracana in 1855 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup with Ostracion hexagonus as its only species. O. hexagonus was originally described in 1787 by Carl Peter Thunberg with its type locality given as Japan. This was later found to be a synonym of O. cubicus aculeatus, described by Martinus Houttuyn in 1782 from Nagasaki. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies this genus in the family Aracanidae which is in the suborder Ostracioidea within the order Tetraodontiformes.Etymology
Kentrocapros combines kentro meaning "thorn" or "spine", a reference to the spiny ridge along the flanks of the type species, with capros, meaning "wild boar". This may allude to these fishes being known as seapigs in the 19th Century, probably an allusion to the resemblance of these fishes on a rear view to a pig.Species
Kentrocapros currently has six recognised species within it:Kentrocapros aculeatus Kentrocapros eco Kentrocapros flavofasciatus Kentrocapros flavimaculatus Matsuura, 2023 Kentrocapros rosapinto Kentrocapros spilonotusIn the paper describing K. flavimaculatus Keiichi Matsuura states that the holotype of K. eco is in too poor condition to correctly identify it to species and that this taxon should be regarded as a nomen dubium.