Chilomycterus schoepfii (Walbaum, 1792)

Leis, Jeffrey M., 2006, Nomenclature and distribution of the species of the porcupinefish family Diodontidae (Pisces, Teleostei), Memoirs of Museum Victoria 63 (1), pp. 77-90 : 84

Chilomycterus schoepfii (Walbaum, 1792)

Diodon schoepfii Walbaum, 1792: 601 (New York)

Diodon meulenii Walbaum, 1792: 602 (unknown locality)

Diodon geometricus var. lineatus Bloch and Schneider, 1801: 513 (New York)

Diodon maculato-striatus Mitchill, 1815: 470 (New York)

Diodon rivulatus Cuvier, 1818: 129 , pl. 6 (unknown locality [New York, USA according to Eschmeyer, 2005])*

Diodon nigrolineatus Ayres, 1842: 68 (Brookhaven, Long Island, New York)

Diodon fuliginosus deKay, 1842: 324, pl. 55 (fig. 181) (New York)

Diodon verrucosus deKay (ex Mitchill), 1842: 325, pl. 55 (fig. 1)? (New York)

Holocanthus areolatus Gronow in Gray, 1854: 27? (Cape of Good Hope, South Africa?)

Chilomycterus pentodon Atkinson in Bryant, 1888: 18 (Beaufort, North Carolina, USA)

* extant type.

Based on examination of 62 lots from throughout the range. Unfortunately, I could locate types of only one of the ten nominal species represented here.

Walbaumʼs (1792, ref. 4572) description of D. schoepfii mentions the diagnostic lined colour pattern of this species, as do the descriptions of Diodon meulenii Walbaum (1792, ref. 4572), Diodon geometricus var lineatus Bloch and Schneider (1801, ref. 471), Diodon maculato-striatus Mitchill (1815, ref. 13292), Diodon rivulatus Cuvier (1818,ref.18059), Diodon nigrolineatus Ayres (1842, ref. 15926), Diodon fuliginosus deKay (1842, ref. 1098), Holocanthus areolatus Gronow in Gray (1854, ref. 6828) and Chilomycterus pentodon Atkinson in Bryant (1888, ref. 13034), thus confirming their identification. The type locality of South Africa for H. areolatus provided by Gronow introduces some doubt, but this may well be an error, as there is no diodontid species with a lined colour pattern in that area. Diodon verrucosus deKay (ex Mitchill) (1842, ref. 1098) has a pigment pattern similar to that of C. antillarum , but, apparently, C. schoepfii passes through an early life-history phase with this colour pattern, and the type locality of New York would seem to eliminate the tropical C. antillarum , so I tentatively consider verrucosus to be a synonym of C. schoepfii .

Distribution. Western North Atlantic

From Halifax, Nova Scotia (waif) to Belize (apparently with a gap between southern Texas and Belize) on the mainland and Cuba, Bermuda and Bahamas.