Ctenochaetus

Ctenochaetus was first proposed as a genus in 1884 by the American biologist Theodore Gill with Acanthurus strigosus as its type species.^[1] A. strigosus had originally been described in 1828 by Edward Turner Bennett from the Sandwich Islands.^[2]

It has been proposed that this genus and Acanthurus should be merged as otherwise Acanthurus is paraphyletic. Ctenochaetus species all nest within Acanthurus, while A. nubilus and A. pyroferus are furthermore nested within Ctenochaetus.^[3] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World recognises these two genera as valid and classifies them as the two genera in the tribe Acanthurini of the subfamily Acanthurinae within the family Acanthuridae.^[4]

Ctenochaetus Is a compound of cteno, meaning “comb”, and chaetus, meaning “bristle”. Gill did not explain what this alluded to but it is almost certain to allude to the bristle or comb like teeth of these fishes.^[5]

Ctenochaetus currently has nine recognised species classified within it:^[6]

Species	Common name	Image
Ctenochaetus binotatus J. E. Randall, 1955	Twospot surgeonfish
Ctenochaetus cyanocheilus J. E. Randall & Clements, 2001	Short-tail bristle-tooth
Ctenochaetus flavicauda Fowler, 1938	Whitetail bristletooth
Ctenochaetus hawaiiensis J. E. Randall, 1955	Chevron tang
Ctenochaetus marginatus (Valenciennes, 1835)	Striped-fin surgeonfish
Ctenochaetus striatus (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825)	Striated surgeonfish
Ctenochaetus strigosus (E. T. Bennett, 1828)	Kole tang
Ctenochaetus tominiensis J. E. Randall, 1955	Tomini surgeonfish
Ctenochaetus truncatus J. E. Randall & Clements, 2001	Indian gold-ring bristle-tooth