Pegasus (fish)

Pegasus
Pegasus tetrabelos
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Syngnathiformes
Family:	Pegasidae
Genus:	Pegasus Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Pegasus volitans Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms
Acanthopegasus McCulloch, 1915 Cataphractus Gronow, 1763 Leptopegasus Bleeker, 1872 Parapegasus Duméril, 1870 Spinipegasus Rendahl, 1930

Pegasus is a genus of seamoths found in coastal tropical marine waters. The name was taken from the winged horse Pegasus in Greek mythology. ^[1] The member species are distributed in the Indo-West Pacific Ocean waters around: Australia, Bahrain, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mozambique, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Tanzania and Thailand. ^[1]

Species

There are currently 5 recognized species in this genus:

• Pegasus lancifer Kaup, 1861 (Sculptured seamoth)
• Pegasus laternarius G. Cuvier, 1816 (Brick seamoth)
• Pegasus volitans Linnaeus, 1758 (Long-tail seamoth)
• Pegasus tetrabelos Osterhage, Pogonoski, Appleyard & W. T. White, 2016 (Short-spined seamoth) ^[2]
• Pegasus sinensis Ying-Yi Zhang, Rong-Rong Zhang, Shao-Bo Ma, Shuai-Shuai Liu, Qiang Lin and Xin Wang], 2022 (Chinese seamoth) ^[3]

References

1. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Family Pegasidae". FishBase . January 2016 version.
2. .Osterhage, D., Pogonoski, J.J., Appleyard, S.A. & White, W.T. (2016): Integrated Taxonomy Reveals Hidden Diversity in Northern Australian Fishes: A New Species of Seamoth (Genus Pegasus). PLoS ONE, 11 (3): e0149415.
3. Zhang YY, Zhang RR, Ma SB, Liu SS, Lin Q, Wang X (18 July 2022). "A new seamoth species of Pegasus (Syngnathiformes: Pegasidae) from the East China Sea". Zoological Research. 43 (4): 675–678. doi:10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2022.109. PMC   9336449 . PMID   35791615.