:Etelis#Taxonomy
{{Short description|Genus of fishes}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Etelis carbunculus JNC2427 (Lutjanidae).JPG
| image_caption = Etelis carbunculus
| taxon = Etelis
| authority = G. Cuvier, 1828{{Cof family | family = Lutjanidae | access-date = 12 May 2021}}
| type_species = Etelis carbunculus
| type_species_authority = G. Cuvier, 1828
| synonyms =
- Elastoma Swainson, 1839
- Hesperanthias R. T. Lowe, 1843
- Macrops A. M. C. Duméril, 1856
- Etelinus D. S. Jordan, 1911
- Erythrobussothen A. E. Parr, 1933
| synonyms_ref = {{Cof family | family = Lutjanidae | access-date = 12 May 2021}}
}}
Etelis is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Lutjanidae, the snappers. They are mostly native to the Indian and Pacific oceans with one species (E. oculatus) native to the western Atlantic Ocean.
Taxonomy
Etelis was named by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier in 1830 with Etelis carbunculus as its only species and, therefore, its type species. The name of the genus was taken from Aristotle by Cuvier, who said that Aristotle had used it for a fish he did not give a description for.{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/lutjaniformes/ | title = Order LUTJANIFORMES: Families HAEMULIDAE and LUTJANIDAE | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1 = Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp | date = 5 January 2021 | accessdate = 14 May 2021 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara | archive-date = 12 April 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210412135037/https://etyfish.org/lutjaniformes/ | url-status = dead }}
The currently recognized species in this genus are:{{FishBase genus | genus = Etelis| month = December | year = 2013}}
- Etelis boweni Andrews, Fernandez-Silva, Randall & H.-C. Ho, 2021 (Bowen’s snapper){{cite journal|last1=Andrews|first1=Kimberly R.|last2=Fernandez-Silva|first2=Iria|last3=Randall|first3=John E.|last4=Ho|first4=Hsuan-Ching|date=2021|title=Etelis boweni sp. nov., a new cryptic deepwater eteline snapper from the Indo-Pacific (Perciformes: Lutjanidae) |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jfb.14720 |journal=Journal of Fish Biology|volume=Early View|issue=2 |pages=335–344 |access-date=3 May 2021|doi=10.1111/jfb.14720|pmid=33751562 |bibcode=2021JFBio..99..335A |s2cid=232323814 |url-access=subscription}}
- Etelis carbunculus G. Cuvier, 1828 (deep-water red snapper)
- Etelis coruscans Valenciennes, 1862 (deepwater longtail red snapper)
- Etelis oculatus (Valenciennes, 1828) (queen snapper)
- Etelis radiosus W. D. Anderson, 1981 (pale snapper)
Characteristics
Etelis snappers are medium sized Lutjanids with slender, fusiform bodies. The jaws are equipped with small, conical teeth, the outer row being the largest and they have 1 or 2 pairs of enlarged canines at their front. The vomerine teeth are placed in a v-shaped or a crescent shaped patch. The space between the eyes is flattened.They have a continuous dorsal fin but there is a notch at the junction of the spiny part of the fin, this fin has 10 spines and 10 to 11 soft rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and 8 soft rays. Both the dorsal and anal fins lack scales and the last ray in each fin is elongated.compared to the neighbouring ray The pectoral fins are long, just shorter than the head and contain 15 to 17 rays. The caudal fins are forked. These snappers are coloured in a variety of red or pink shades changing to silvery or whitish on lower flanks and abdomen.{{cite book | author = Gerald R. Allen | year = 1985 | title = FAO species catalogue Vol.6. Snappers of the world An annotated and illustrated catalogue of lutjanid species known to date | pages = 23–24 | publisher = FAO Rome | isbn = 92-5-102321-2 | url = http://www.fao.org/3/ac481e/ac481e07.pdf}}
Distribution
Etelis species are found mainly in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean, with one species the queen snapper (E. oculatus) being found in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean.