Owstonia Tanaka, 1908

Liao, Yun-Chih, Reyes Jr, Rodolfo B. & Shao, Kwang-Tsao, 2009, A New Bandfish, Owstonia Sarmiento (Pisces: Perciformes: Cepolidae: Owstoniinae), From The Philippines With A Key To Species Of The Genus, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 57 (2), pp. 521-525 : 522

Owstonia Tanaka, 1908

Owstonia Tanaka, 1908: 46 (type species Owstonia totomiensis )

L o x o p s e u d o c h ro m i s F o w l e r, 1 9 3 4a: 3 5 4 (t y p e s p e c i e s Loxopseudochromis dorypterus ).

Parasphenanthias Gilchrist, 1922: 69 (type species Parasphenanthias weberi ).

Sphenanthias Weber, 1913: 210 (type species Sphenanthias sibogae ).

Remarks. – Genus Owstonia is characterized by large head, compressed body tapering posteriorly; cycloid scales; large and oblique mouth; maxillary exposed, no supplemental bone; teeth curved, uniserial in jaws with cluster at lower symphysis, palatine and vomer teeth absent; six branchiostegals, gill opening wide, gill rakers long and numerous; anal and dorsal fins long, spines slender, caudal fin long with middle rays elongated, pectoral fin short; sensory canals of head prominent; lateral line runs close to dorsal base and ends before caudal peduncle ( Smith, 1968).

There are about five species included in this genus, viz. Owstonia totomiensis Tanaka, 1908 , O. weberi ( Gilchrist, 1922) , O. dorypterus ( Fowler, 1934a) , O. microlepis ( Fowler, 1934b) , and O. maccullochi Whitley, 1934 . Among them, O. microlepis was synonymized with O. weberi , and O. maccullochi was synonymized with O. totomiensis , respectively ( Smith, 1968, Smith-Vaniz, 1986; 2001). However, they were included in this genus and in the key to species with parentheses for reference (see below). Furthermore, as mentioned above ( Smith-Vaniz, 2001), other species, (i.e., O. grammodon ( Fowler, 1934b) , O. macrophthalmus (Fourmanoir, 1985) , O. nigromarginatus (Fourmanoir, 1985) , O. pectinifer ( Myers, 1939) , O. simoterus ( Smith, 1968) , O. tosaensis Kamohara, 1934 , and O. whiteheadi Talwar, 1973 ), formerly belonged to the genus Owstonia should be referred to the genus Sphenanthias .