General Information

COMMON NAMES: Fringelip Flathead; French Poisson-crocodile à Lèvres Frangèes GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE e - Africa - Tuamotus; n. to s.Japan; s. to GBR COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native; S.Group - Rarotonga only so far; Marine, near-shore KEY FEATURES: To 25cm SL. Broad headed, tapering, elongate, strongly depressed body. Light brown with strong brown and white mottling. Fins also mottled or spotted. The lips are barred brown and white, and they have small protruding skin-flaps (papillae). It has no papillae on the eye SIMILAR SPECIES: see under Thysanophyrs arenicola (Broadhead Flathead) for details.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
P

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW

Eurycephalus otaitensis (Cuvier, 1829)
SYNONYMS: Cottus otaitensis [O]; Platycephalus otaitensis; Thysanophrys malayanus [jun. syn.]; Thysanophrys otaitensis

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); PISCES; OSTEICHTHYES; Scorpaeniformes; Platycephaloidei; PLATYCEPHALIDAE. COMMENT: SciName J.E.Randall pers.comm. 3/2000, not Eschmeyer.

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: specimen set gillnet Avatiu Pass., to BPBM Sims, ID J.E.Randall (Sims88).

References:
Special Reference: Imamura, H; Ida, H: Moyer, J.T. 1995 Rediscription of a flathead, $Thysanophrys otaitensis@ (Scorpaeniformes: Platycephalidae). Jap. J. ichthyol. 42 (3-4):277-283. $Thysanophrys otaitensis@ is confirmed as a seniour synonym of $T. malayanus@.

text p.91 Myers (1991 2nd Ed.) Fishes of Micronesia
plate -091/1 Myers (1991 2nd Ed.) Fishes of Micronesia
p.87 Randall et al. (1990) Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef....
plate 17-02 Lieske & Myers (1996) Coral Reef Fishes

Data Update History (information):
zTXmx, zB02, zM02, zD02

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