Peristedion

{{Short description|Genus of fishes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Use British English|date=June 2022}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Slender searobin ( Peristedion gracile ).jpg | image_caption = ''Peristedion gracile'' | image2 = Armored searobin ( Peristedion miniatum ).jpg | image2_caption = ''Peristedion miniatum'' | taxon = Peristedion | authority = Lacépède, 1801 | type_species = ''Peristedion malarmat'' | type_species_authority = Lacépède, 1801<ref name = CofF>{{Cof family|family=Peristediinae|access-date=24 June 2022}}</ref> | synonyms = * ''Octonus'' Rafinesque, 1810 * ''Panichthys'' Whitley, 1933 * ''Peristedium'' Jordan & Gilbert, 1883 * ''Peristethidium'' Agassiz, 1846 * ''Peristethus'' Kaup, 1858 * ''Polyacantichthys'' Kaup, 1873 * ''Vulsiculus'' Jordan & Evermann, 1896 | synonyms_ref = <ref name = CofF/> }}

'''''Peristedion''''' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the subfamily Peristediinae, the armoured gurnards or armored sea robins. These fishes are found in Atlantic and Indo-West Pacific ocean waters.

==Taxonomy== Peristedion was first described as a genus in 1801 by the French naturalist Bernard Germain de Lacépède when he described ''Peristedion marmalat'' from the Mediterranean Sea and the Moluccas. In 1826 Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent designated ''P. marmalat'' as the type species of the genus.<ref name = CofF/><ref name = CofF2>{{Cof genus|genus=Peristedion|access-date=27 June 2022}}</ref> ''P. marmalat'' is now treated as a junior synonym of Carl Linnaeus's ''Trigla cataphracta'', which he described from the Mediterranean Sea off southern France.<ref name = CofF2/> Within the family Peristediidae there are 2 clades. One, which contains Peristedion, is a monotypic clade, while the other clade is made up of the remaining 5 genera of the Peristediidae.<ref name = Kawai>{{cite journal | author = Toshio Kawai | title = Phylogenetic Systematics of the Family Peristediidae (Teleostei: Actinopterygii) | journal = Species Diversity | year = 2008 | volume= 13 | issue =1 | pages = 1–34 | doi = 10.12782/specdiv.13.1| doi-access = free }}</ref> The name of the genus ''Peristedion'' is a combination of ''peri'', meaning "around", and ''stedion'', which is a diminutive of ''stethos'', which is Greek for "breast" or "chest", an allusion to the bony plates lining the underside of the body, similar to a plastron, the feature Lacépède use to distinguish ''Peristidion'' from ''Trigla''.<ref name = ETYFish>{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/perciformes12/ | title = Order Perciformes (Part 12): Suborder Triglioidei: Families Triglidae and Peristediidae | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1= Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp |date = 26 June 2021 | access-date = 17 June 2022 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}</ref>

==Species== ''Peristedion'' currently contains 24 recognized species:<ref name = Fishbase>{{FishBase genus|genus=Peristedion|month=February|year=2022}}</ref> * ''Peristedion altipinne'' Regan, 1903 * ''Peristedion amblygenys'' Fowler, 1938 <ref name=Ono2014>Ono, M. & Kawai, T. (2014): [http://jssz.sakura.ne.jp/spdiv/v19/abs/19_117.pdf Review of Armored Searobins of the Genus ''Peristedion''(Teleostei: Peristediidae) in Japanese Waters.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220106220035/https://jssz.sakura.ne.jp/spdiv/v19/abs/19_117.pdf |date=6 January 2022 }} ''Species Diversity, 19 (2): 117–131.''</ref> * ''Peristedion antillarum'' Teague, 1961 (Long-nose armoured searobin) * ''Peristedion barbiger'' Garman, 1899 * ''Peristedion brevirostre'' (Günther, 1860) (Flat-head searobin) * ''Peristedion cataphractum'' (Linnaeus, 1758) (African armoured searobin) * ''Peristedion crustosum'' Garman, 1899 * ''Peristedion ecuadorense'' Teague, 1961 * ''Peristedion gracile'' Goode & T. H. Bean, 1896 (Slender searobin) * ''Peristedion greyae'' G. C. Miller, 1967 * ''Peristedion imberbe'' Poey, 1861 * ''Peristedion liorhynchus'' (Günther, 1872) <ref name=Ono2014/> * ''Peristedion longicornutum'' Fricke, Kawai, Yato & Motomura, 2017 (Longhorn armored gurnard) * ''Peristedion longispatha'' Goode & T. H. Bean] 1886 * ''Peristedion miniatum'' Goode, 1880 (Armoured searobin) * ''Peristedion nesium'' W. A. Bussing, 2010 * ''Peristedion orientale'' Temminck & Schlegel, 1843 <ref name=Ono2014/> * ''Peristedion paucibarbiger'' Castro-Aguirre & García-Domínguez, 1984 * ''Peristedion richardsi'' Kawai, 2016 <ref name=Kawai2016>Kawai, T. (2016): ''Peristedion richardsi'' sp. nov. (Actinopterygii: Teleostei: Peristediidae) from Indonesian waters, with synonymy between ''Peristedion riversandersoni'' Alcock, 1894 and ''Peristedion nierstraszi'' Weber, 1913. ''Zootaxa, 4171 (2): 335–346.''</ref> * ''Peristedion riversandersoni'' Alcock, 1894 * ''Peristedion thompsoni'' Fowler, 1952 (Rim-spine searobin) * ''Peristedion truncatum'' (Günther, 1880) (Black armoured searobin) * ''Peristedion unicuspis'' G. C. Miller, 1967 * ''Peristedion weberi'' J. L. B. Smith, 1934

==Characteristics== ''Peristedion'' armoured gurnards have a ventrally flattened head and body which is protected by a bony armour of plates and spines. There is a two-pointed rostral projection on the snout and there are barbels under the lower jaw. They do not have robust spines on the preoperculum. The first dorsal fin has 7 or 8 spines and the second dorsal fin has between 18 and 20 soft rays while the anal fin has between 20 and 23 soft rays. There are between 11 and 13 fin rays enclosed within the membrane of the pectoral fin plus the two lowermost rays being separate. The pelvic fins are widely spaced, located under the base of the pectoral fins, and have 1 spine and 5 soft rays.<ref name = STRI>{{cite web| url = https://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/sftep/en/thefishes/taxon/2634 | title = Genus: Peristedion, Amoured Sea-Robins, Armoured-Gurnards | access-date = 27 June 2022 | work = Shorefishes of the Eastern Pacific online information system | publisher = Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute}}</ref> The smallest species in the genus is ''P. paucibarbiger'', which has a maximum published standard length of {{cvt|7|cm}}. The largest are the African armoured sea robin (''P. cataphractum'') and the armoured gurnard (''P. liorhynchus'') both of which have maximum published standard lengths of {{cvt|540|cm}}.<ref name = Fishbase/>

==Distribution== ''Peristedion'' armoured gurnards occur on either sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Indo-West-Pacific and eastern Pacific Ocean.<ref name = STRI/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

Category:Fish of the Atlantic Ocean Category:Fish of the Pacific Ocean Category:Peristedion Category:Peristediidae Category:Taxa named by Bernard Germain de Lacépède