Scorpidinae

The Scorpidinae, commonly known as halfmoons, knifefishes and sweeps are a subfamily of the sea chubs, a family of marine fish in the order Perciformes. The Scorpidinae are distributed throughout the Pacific and east Indian Oceans, with species occurring in the waters of North America, South America, Asia, Australia and numerous islands. Most inhabit the continental shelf in shallow rock and kelp reefs and deeper offshore reefs, whilst others are found well offshore in a pelagic setting. Most of the Scorpidinae are carnivorous, taking a variety of small crustaceans, although some are partly herbivorous. A number of the larger species are fished for commercially and recreationally, and are considered good table fish.

Classification

Fishbase lists eleven species in four genera under the subfamily Scorpidinae. This is a list of known all extant species.

• Subfamily SCORPIDINAE
  • Genus Bathystethus
    • Grey knifefish, Bathystethus cultratus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)
    • Bathystethus orientale Regan, 1913
  • Genus Labracoglossa
    • Labracoglossa argenteiventris Peters, 1866
    • Blue knifefish, Labracoglossa nitida McCulloch and Waite, 1916
  • Genus Medialuna
    • Medialuna ancietae Chirichigno, 1987
    • Halfmoon, Medialuna californiensis (Steindachner, 1876)
  • Genus Scorpis
    • Sea sweep, Scorpis aequipinnis Richardson, 1848
    • Scorpis chilensis Guichenot, 1848
    • Banded sweep, Scorpis georgianus Valenciennes, 1832
    • Silver sweep, Scorpis lineolata Kner, 1865
    • Blue maomao, Scorpis violacea (Hutton, 1873)

References

• Froese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2008). "Kyphosidae" in FishBase. May 2008 version.
• "Scorpidinae". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. http://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=645323. Retrieved May 2008.