Lutjanus - Snappers
Description
Lutjanus is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, snappers belonging to the family Lutjanidae. They are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. They are predatory fish usually found in tropical and subtropical reefs, and mangrove forests. This genus also includes two species that only occur in fresh and brackish waters.
Taxonomy
Lutjanus was created in 1790 by the German physician and zoologist Marcus Elieser Bloch with Lutjanus lutjanus as its type species by tautonymy. It is the type genus of the subfamily Lutjaninae and the family Lutjanidae. The name is derived from a local Indonesian name for snappers, ikhan Lutjang. Bloch erroneously stated that the type locality for L. lutjanus was Japan when the name he gave it suggested that it was collected in the East Indies. A taxonomic study of snappers within the subfamily Lutjaninae in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean indicated that the at monotypic genera Ocyurus and Rhomboplites sit within the genus Lutjanus. Lutjanus ambiguus is considered by some authorities to most likely to be a hybrid between L. synagris and Ocyurus chrysurus, supporting the close relation between the two genera.
Currently, 73 recognized species are placed in this genus.
