Kentrocapros aculeatus
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| Kentrocapros aculeatus | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Tetraodontiformes |
| Family: | Aracanidae |
| Genus: | Kentrocapros |
| Species: | K. aculeatus |
| Binomial name | |
| Kentrocapros aculeatus (Houttuyn, 1782) | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
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Kentrocapros aculeatus, the Itomaki basketfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Aracanidae, the temperate boxfishes or deepwater boxfishes. This species is found in the north western and central Pacific Ocean.
Kentrocapros aculeatus was first formally described as Ostracion cubicus aculeatus in 1782 by the Dutch naturalist Martinus Houttuyn with its type locality given as Nagasaki.[3] In 1787 Carl Peter Thunberg described Ostracion hexagonus from Japan and in 1855 Johann Jakob Kaup proposed a new monotypic subgenus of Aracana which he called Kentrocapros with O. hexagonus as its only species. O. hexagonus is now considered to be a synonym of O. c. aculeatus, so this species is the type species of Kentrocapros by monotypy.[3][4] The 5th edition of Fishes of the World classifies Kentrocapros in the family Aracanidae which is in the suborder Ostracioidea within the order Tetraodontiformes.[5]
Etymology
Kentrocapros aculeatus is the type species of the genus Kentrocapros, a name which combines kentro meaning "thorn" or "spine", a reference to the spiny ridge along the flanks of this 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. The specific name, aculeatus, means "spined" or "pointed" and refers to the spiny ridge along the flanks too.[6]