Hemitaurichthys

Hemitaurichthys
Pyramid butterflyfish (H. polylepis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Acanthuriformes
Family:	Chaetodontidae
Genus:	Hemitaurichthys Bleeker, 1876
Type species
Chaetodon polylepis Bleeker, 1857 [1]

Hemitaurichthys is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, butterflyfishes from the family Chaetodontidae. They are native to the Indian and Pacific oceans.

The name of this genus is a compound of the Greek hemi meaning “half” and in this case meaning “similar to“, taurus meaning “bull” and ichthys meaning “fish”, taurichthys being a synonym of Heniochus and refers to the bony protuberances, similar to horns, on the head of Heniochus varius . ^[2]

Species

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

Species	Common name	Image
Hemitaurichthys multispinosus J. E. Randall, 1975	many-spined butterflyfish
Hemitaurichthys polylepis (Bleeker, 1857)	pyramid butterflyfish
Hemitaurichthys thompsoni Fowler, 1923	Thompson's butterflyfish
Hemitaurichthys zoster (E. T. Bennett, 1831)	brown-and-white butterflyfish

References

1. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Chaetodontidae". Catalog of Fishes . California Academy of Sciences . Retrieved 23 November 2020.
2. 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 22 November 2020.
3. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Hemitaurichthys". FishBase . February 2013 version.