| Panna | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Armour croaker (Panna perarmatus) | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Acanthuriformes |
| Family: | Sciaenidae |
| Genus: | Panna R. S. Lal Mohan, 1969 |
| Type species | |
| Otolithus microdon | |
Panna is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found in southern and southeast Asia.
Panna was first proposed as a monospecific genus in 1969 by the Indian ichthyologist R. S. Lal Mohan with Otolithus microdon designated as its type species, as well as being the only species. [1] O. microdon was described in 1849 by Pieter Bleeker, with its type locality given as Java. [2] The genus Pachyurus is included in the subfamily Cynoscioninae by some workers, [3] but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae, which it places in the order Acanthuriformes. [4]
Panna is a name that Lal Mohan did not explain, but is thought to be a local name of the type species P. macrodon in India. [5]
There are currently 3 recognized species in this genus: [6]
Panna croakers have a swim bladder characterised by having a pair of tubular appendages starting at the head end which divides almost at its root into a simple rear part and either a simple or branched part at the head end, entering the head through the septum transversum. [7] The maximum published standard lengths of Panna croakers varies from 21.4 cm (8.4 in) in P. heterolepis and 50 cm (20 in) in P. perarmatus. [6]
Panna croakers are found in the Indo-West Pacific with P. heterolepis being found off India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Myanmar; P. microdon is found in eastern Malaysia in Perak, the Gulf of Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, eastern Sumatra and Java; and P. perarmatus is found off Vietnam, in the Gulf of Thailand and Borneo. [7]