Chelonodon

Chelonodon (from Ancient Greek χελώνη (khelṓnē), meaning "turtle", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth") is a genus of pufferfishes native to the Indo-Pacific. They are mainly found in coastal regions and estuaries, but sometimes in rivers.

Species and taxonomy

There are six recognized species in this genus:

• Chelonodon alvheimi <small>(Psomadakis, Matsuura & Thein, 2018)</small>
• Chelonodon kappa <small>(Hamilton, 1822)</small>
• Chelonodon laticeps <small>(J. L. B. Smith, 1948)</small> (Blue-spotted blaasop)
• Chelonodon leopardus <small>(Day, 1878)</small> (Banded leopard blowfish)
• Chelonodon patoca <small>(F. Hamilton, 1822)</small> (Milk-spotted puffer)
• Chelonodon pleurospilus <small>(Regan, 1919)</small> (Blaasop beauty)

• Chelonodon bengalensis <small>(Habib et al., 2018)</small> (Bengal reticulated puffer) is a synonym of Chelonodon patoca

The type species of Chelonodon was Leiodon cutcutia, making it a synonym of Leiodon. As a consequence, Catalog of Fishes and other authorities instead placed the above species in Chelonodontops. FishBase, however, still uses Chelonodon, and therefore the type was changed to C. kappa in 2024.

References