Pomacanthus

Pomacanthus; Temporal range: Late Cretaceous to Present
	Gray angelfish, Pomacanthus arcuatus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Pomacanthidae
Genus:	Pomacanthus; Lacépède, 1802
Type species
	Chaetodon arcuatus; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Species
	See text
Synonyms
	Acanthochaetodon Bleeker, 1876; Arusetta Fraser-Brunner, 1933; Euxiphipops Fraser-Brunner, 1934; Heteropyge Fraser-Brunner, 1933; Pomacanthops J.L.B. Smith, 1955;

Pomacanthus is a genus of marine angelfish that is usually found around reefs and coral. Some of the notable places one can see these vari-coloured fish includes the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Sipidan off the southern coast of Sabah, Malaysia. Generally the patterns and colors of these fish undergo a major transformation from juvenile to adult forms. The juveniles may even appear to be a different species.

Species

The following 13 species are classified within the genus Pomacanthus:^[3]

Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
Pomacanthus annularis (Bloch, 1787).	Bluering angelfish,	the Indo-West Pacific oceans from East Africa, throughout Indonesia and New Guinea to New Caledonia, north to southern Japan.
Pomacanthus arcuatus (Linnaeus, 1758).	Gray angelfish,	western Atlantic from New England to the vicinity of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and also the Bahamas, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean, including the Antilles
Pomacanthus asfur (Forsskål, 1775).	Arabian angelfish,	the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to Zanzibar. It can be found also in the Persian Gulf. And Meditteranean
Pomacanthus chrysurus (Cuvier, 1831).	Goldtail angelfish,	western Indian Ocean (South Africa including Comoros, Seychelles and Madagascar)
Pomacanthus imperator (Bloch, 1787).	Emperor angelfish,	the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from the Red Sea to Hawaii,the Austral Islands and Mediterranean
Pomacanthus maculosus (Forsskål, 1775).	Yellowbar angelfish,	the Persian Gulf, the northwestern Indian Ocean, the Red Sea and meditteranean
Pomacanthus navarchus (Cuvier, 1831).	Blue-girdled angelfish,	the Indo-Pacific region
Pomacanthus paru (Bloch, 1787).	French angelfish,	western Atlantic from New York and the Bahamas to Brazil, and also the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, including the Antilles, Roatan, and the eastern Atlantic from around Ascension Island and St. Paul's Rocks
Pomacanthus rhomboides (Gilchrist & Thompson, 1908).	Old woman angelfish,	western Indian Ocean
Pomacanthus semicirculatus (Cuvier, 1831).	Semicircle angelfish,	east coast of Africa to Fiji and Japan, the east coast of Australia and New Caledonia.
Pomacanthus sexstriatus (Cuvier, 1831).	Sixbar angelfish,	South Pacific reefs, most commonly the Great Barrier Reef of Australia's north-east coast
Pomacanthus xanthometopon (Bleeker, 1853).	Yellowface angelfish, Blueface angelfish,	Maldive Islands, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, northern Australia and Micronesia
Pomacanthus zonipectus (Gill, 1862).	Cortez angelfish,	Eastern Pacific

Systematics

The genus Pomacanthus was created in 1802 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède (1756-1825) with the type species being designated as Chaetodon arcuatus.^[2] The name is a compound of poma meaning"lid" and acanthus which means "thorn", a reference to the prominents spine on the rear margin of the operculum, a feature shared by all the marine angelfishes.^[4]

Some authorities divide the genus up into the following subgenera:^[4]

Pomacanthus Lacépède, 1802
- Pomacanthus (Pomacanthus) arcuatus
- Pomacanthus (Pomacanthus) paru
- Pomacanthus (Pomacanthus) zonipectus
Acanthochaetodon Bleeker, 1876
- Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) annularis
- Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) chrysurus
- Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) imperator
- Pomacanthus (Acanthochaetodon) rhomboides
Arusetta Fraser-Brunner, 1933
- Pomacanthus (Arusetta) asfur
- Pomacanthus (Arusetta) maculosus
- Pomacanthus (Arusetta) semicirculatus
Euxiphipops Fraser-Brunner 1934
- Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) navarchus
- Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) sexstriatus
- Pomacanthus (Euxiphipops) xanthometopon

References

^ Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
^ ^a ^b ^c Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Pomacanthidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
^ Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Pomacanthus". FishBase. December 2019 version.
^ ^a ^b Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (21 July 2020). "Order ACANTHURIFORMES (part 1): Families LOBOTIDAE, POMACANTHIDAE, DREPANEIDAE and CHAETODONTIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 26 February 2021.

[1] Sepkoski, Jack (2002). "A compendium of fossil marine animal genera". Bulletins of American Paleontology. 364: 560. Retrieved 2008-01-08.

[CofF-2] Eschmeyer, William N.; Fricke, Ron & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Pomacanthidae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 26 February 2021.

[Fishbase-3] Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Pomacanthus". FishBase. December 2019 version.

[ETYFish-4] Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (21 July 2020). "Order ACANTHURIFORMES (part 1): Families LOBOTIDAE, POMACANTHIDAE, DREPANEIDAE and CHAETODONTIDAE". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 26 February 2021.

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