Arothron

Arothron
Narrow-lined puffer (Arothron manilensis)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Division: Teleostei
Order: Tetraodontiformes
Family: Tetraodontidae
Subfamily: Tetraodontinae
Genus: Arothron
J. P. Müller, 1841
Diversity
14 species

Arothron is a genus of pufferfish that belongs to the family Tetraodontidae. Arothron species inhabit coastal waters, with the exception of A. firmamentum. While they are highly toxic due to the presence of tetrodotoxin, several species are eaten in Japan. Arothron species are sometimes kept in aquaria.

Distribution

They have a wide range of distribution being found in warm parts of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean.

Evolution

Phylogeny with 12 of the 14 species

The oldest described specimens of this genus are dated to the early Pleistocene epoch around 1.95-1.35 million years ago. They were uncovered in the Liuchungchi Formation in southern Taiwan. They are semi-articulated specimens with nearly complete skulls that show characteristic beak-like jaws.

Description

Patterns of 7 species of Arothron. It is hypothesized that species with reticulated patterns (D-F) may have hybrid origins; the result of blending the patterns of one parent with dark spots and a light background, and a parent with light spots and a dark background.

The largest species is A. stellatus, which can reach 1.2 m (3.9 ft) in length.

They can be distinguished from other genera of pufferfish through the combination of the presence of a bifurcated fleshy protuberance at each nostril, and a single continuous lateral line on each side of the body without a branch above the anus. While Chelonodon and Tetraodon also have the bifurcated nostril tentacles, their lateral lines branch down towards the anus.

Two species in particular, A. meleagris and A. nigropunctatus, are especially polymorphic. Alongside their typical forms, they also have fully yellow forms, as well as forms intermediate between the two.

Species

There are currently 14 recognized species in this genus:

Image Species Common name
Arothron caeruleopunctatus

Matsuura, 1994

 Blue-spotted puffer
Arothron carduus

(Cantor, 1849)
Arothron diadematus

(Rüppell, 1829)

 Masked puffer
Arothron firmamentum

(Temminck & Schlegel, 1850)

 Starry puffer
Arothron hispidus

(Linnaeus, 1758)

 White-spotted puffer
Arothron immaculatus

(Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801)

 Immaculate puffer
Arothron inconditus

J. L. B. Smith, 1958

 Belly-striped puffer
Arothron manilensis

(Marion de Procé, 1822)

 Narrow-lined puffer
Arothron mappa

(Lesson, 1831)

 Map puffer
Arothron meleagris

(Anonymous, referred to Lacépède, 1798)

 Guineafowl puffer
Arothron multilineatus

Matsuura, 2016

 Many-lined puffer
Arothron nigropunctatus

(Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801)

 Black-spotted puffer
Arothron reticularis

(Bloch & J. G. Schneider, 1801)

 Reticulated puffer
Arothron stellatus

(Anonymous, referred to Lacépède, 1798)

 Stellate puffer
Synonyms

References

  1. ↑ Hardy, Graham S. (1980). "A redescription of the antitropical pufferfish Arothron firmamentum (Plectognathi: Tetraodontidae)". New Zealand Journal of Zoology. 7 (1): 115–125. doi:10.1080/03014223.1980.10423768. ISSN 1175-8821.
  2. ↑ Khora, Samanta S.; Isa, Jiro; Yasumoto, Takeshi (1991). "Toxicity of puffers from Okinawa, Japan". NIPPON SUISAN GAKKAISHI. 57 (1): 163–167. doi:10.2331/suisan.57.163. ISSN 1349-998X.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Arothron". FishBase. December 2016 version.
  4. 1 2 Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Species in the genus Arothron". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 28 March 2025.
  5. ↑ Lee, Chieh-Hsuan; Přikryl, Tomáš; Hsu, Yu-Chieh; Lin, Chien-Hsiang (2026-03-31). "First skeletal record of the pufferfish Arothron (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae) from the Early Pleistocene of southern Taiwan". Palaeontologia Electronica. 29 (1): 1–15. doi:10.26879/1668. ISSN 1094-8074.
  6. ↑ Miyazawa, Seita (2020-12-02). "Pattern blending enriches the diversity of animal colorations". Science Advances. 6 (49). American Association for the Advancement of Science: eabb9107. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb9107. PMC 7710386. PMID 33268371.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  7. ↑ Mishra, Subhrendu & Chakraborty, Priyankar & Yardi, Kranti. (2021). New record of white-spotted pufferfish Arothron hispidus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae) from West Bengal, India, compared with other Arothron species occurring in India. Journal of Fisheries. 9. 93401. 10.17017/j.fish.332.
  8. ↑ 松浦, 啓一 (1994). "インド・西太平洋から得られらたモヨウフグ属の1新種". 魚類学雑誌. 41 (1): 29–33. doi:10.11369/jji1950.41.29.
  9. ↑ Keiichi, Matsuura; Okuno, Junji (1991). "Redescription of a rare pufferfish, Arothron carduus (Cantor, 1849) (Teleostei: Tetraodontidae)". National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo. 17 (3).
  10. ↑ Su, Jinxiang; Tyler, James C. (1986). "Diagnoses of Arothron nigropunctatus and A. meleagris, Two Extremely Polychromatic Indo-Pacific Pufferfishes (Pisces: Tetraodontidae)". Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 138 (1). Academy of Natural Sciences: 14–32. ISSN 0097-3157.
  11. ↑ Matsuura, K. (2016). "A new pufferfish, Arothron multilineatus (Actinopterygii: Tetraodontiformes: Tetraodontidae), from the Indo-West Pacific". Ichthyological Research. 63 (4): 480–486.