Liocranium

Liocranium is a small genus of marine ray-finned fishes, waspfishes belonging to the subfamilyTetraroginae, which is classified as part of the familyScorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. The fishes in this genus are found in the eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean.

Liocranium was first described as a genus in 1903 by the Australian ichthyologistJames Douglas Ogilby when he described a new species of waspfish from Queensland he called Liocranium praepositum and placed in a new monotypic genus.^[1] In 1927 Gilbert Percy Whitley proposed the name Abcichthys for this genus as he considered that Liocranium was preoccupied by the spider genus Liocranum, however, there is enough difference between these two names to regard Liocranium as valid and Whitley's name is treated as a synonym. In 1964 Mees classified Paracentropogon pleurostigma, which had been described by Weber from New Guinea, as a subspecies of L. praepositum, L.p. pleurostigma. It has subsequently been recognised as the second species in the genus Liocranium.^[3] This taxon is included in the subfamily Tetraroginae within the Scorpaenidae in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World^[4] however other authorities place that subfamily within the stonefish family Synanceiidae,^[1] while other authorities classify this subfamily as a family in its own right.^[2] The genus name liocranium is a compound of leios, meaning "smooth", and cranium, which means "skull", presumed to refer to the head of L. praepositum which has no skin flaps or tentacles.^[5]

Liocranium has the following 2 species classified within it:^[2]

• Liocranium pleurostigma(Weber, 1913) (western blackspot waspfish)
• Liocranium praepositumOgilby, 1903 (blackspot waspfish)

Los peces avispa del género Liocranium se caracterizan por tener el origen de la aleta dorsal claramente delante de una línea vertical que va desde la parte posterior de la órbita. La aleta dorsal es continua, con las 3 espinas delanteras casi separadas de las otras 10. La aleta dorsal contiene 13 espinas y 8, raramente 7 o 9, radios blandos. Hay 14, a veces 13 o 15, radios en las aletas pectorales , 4 en las aletas pélvicas y 5 o 6 en la aleta anal . No hay dientes en el hueso palatino . Hay muchas escamas cicloides pequeñas que cubren los flancos. El cuerpo tiene una altura que es del 39-46% de su longitud estándar . ^{[ 3 ]} Estos peces alcanzan una longitud total máxima de 13 a 14 cm (5,1 a 5,5 pulgadas) . ^{[ 2 ]}