Gymnapogon Explained

Gymnapogon is a genus of fish in the family Apogonidae. They are native to the Indo-West Pacific and central Pacific Oceans, where they occur in reefs and nearby habitat types. These species are usually no more than 5 centimeters long and have semitransparent bodies without scales. The genus name is a compound noun formed by combining the Greek gymnos meaning "naked", referring to the lack of scales in the type species, Gymnapogon japonicus, and Apogon, the type genus of the Apogonidae.^[1] One species, the B-spot cardinalfish (Gymnapogon urospilotus), is notable for its larvae being rather large, conspicuous and fast-swimming.^[2]

Species

There are currently 9 recognized species in this genus:^[3]

• Gymnapogon africanus J. L. B. Smith, 1954 (Crystal cardinalfish)
• Gymnapogon annona (Whitley, 1936) (Naked cardinalfish)
• Gymnapogon foraminosus (S. Tanaka (I), 1915)
• Gymnapogon janus T. H. Fraser, 2016 ^[4]
• Gymnapogon japonicus Regan, 1905
• Gymnapogon melanogaster Gon & Golani, 2002
• Gymnapogon philippinus (Herre, 1939) (Philippines cardinalfish)
• Gymnapogon urospilotus Lachner, 1953 (B-spot cardinalfish)
• Gymnapogon vanderbilti (Fowler, 1938) (Vanderbilt's cardinalfish)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Order KURTIFORMES (Nurseryfishes and Cardinalfishes) . 17 September 2018 . Christopher Scharpf . Kenneth J. Lazara . amp . The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database . Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara . 31 May 2018.
2. Book: Fishes of the World . 5th . J. S. Nelson . T. C. Grande . M. V. H. Wilson . 2016 . 752 . Wiley . 978-1-118-34233-6 . 2018-09-18 . 2019-04-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190408194051/https://sites.google.com/site/fotw5th/ . dead .
3. Mabuchi, K., Fraser, T.H., Song, H., Azuma, Y. & Nishida, M. (2014): Revision of the systematics of the cardinalfishes (Percomorpha: Apogonidae) based on molecular analyses and comparative reevaluation of morphological characters. Zootaxa, 3846 (2): 151–203.
4. Fraser, T.H. (2016): A new species of cardinalfish (Gymnapogon, Gymnapogonini, Apogonidae, Percomorpha) from the Philippines. Zootaxa, 4107 (3): 431-438.