Lutjanus

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Lutjanus is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, snappers belonging to the family Lutjanidae. They are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. They are predatory fish usually found in tropical and subtropical reefs, and mangrove forests. This genus also includes two species that only occur in fresh and brackish waters.

Lutjanus was created in 1790 by the German physician and zoologist Marcus Elieser Bloch with Lutjanus lutjanus as its type species by tautonymy.^[1] It is the type genus of the subfamily Lutjaninae and the family Lutjanidae. The name is derived from a local Indonesian name for snappers, ikhan Lutjang.^[2] Bloch erroneously stated that the type locality for L. lutjanus was Japan when the name he gave it suggested that it was collected in the East Indies.^[3] A taxonomic study of snappers within the subfamily Lutjaninae in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean indicated that the at monotypic genera Ocyurus and Rhomboplites sit within the genus Lutjanus.^[4] Lutjanus ambiguus is considered by some authorities to most likely to be a hybrid between L. synagris and Ocyurus chrysurus, supporting the close relation between the two genera.^[5]

Lutjanus snappers are small to large in size with oblong shaped bodies which vary from deep to slender and fusiformin form. They have relatively large mouths which is protractable. The teeth are arranged in one or more rows in the jaws and are pointed and conical in shape with the outer row consisting of canine-like teeth with the anterior ones enlarged into more obvious canine-like fangs. The vomerine teeth are arranged in patches which may be chevron, triangular or lunate and may or may bot have a posterior extension, or be arranged in a rhombus. The space between the eyes is convex and they have a aserrated preopercle which has a deep incision on its lower margin. They sometimes jhave a bony knob between the operculum and the preopercle which is most obvious in those species which have a deep incision in the preopercle. They have a continuous dorsal fin, frequently having a slight incision between the spiny portion and the soft-rayed portion.The spiny part of the dorsal fin may have 10 or 11 spines while the soft rayed part may have 11 to 16 rays. The anal fin has 3 spines and between 7 and 10 soft rays while the pectoral fins have between 15 and 18 soft rays. The dorsal and anal fins are scaled while the caudal fin may be emarginate, truncate or, rarely, forked. These snappers are extremely variable in colour frequently having a background colour of reddish, yellow, grey, or brown overlain with a pattern of darker stripes or bars. They are often marked with a large blackish spot on upper flanks underneath the front soft rays of the dorsal fin.The dorsal and anal fins are scaled while the caudal fin may be emarginate, truncate or, rarely, forked. These snappers are extremely variable in colour frequently having a background colour of reddish, yellow, grey, or brown overlain with a pattern of darker stripes or bars. They are often marked with a large blackish spot on upper flanks underneath the front soft rays of the dorsal fin.The dorsal and anal fins are scaled while the caudal fin may be emarginate, truncate or, rarely, forked. These snappers are extremely variable in colour frequently having a background colour of reddish, yellow, grey, or brown overlain with a pattern of darker stripes or bars. They are often marked with a large blackish spot on upper flanks underneath the front soft rays of the dorsal fin.^[12]

Lutjanus snappers have a circumtropical and subtropical distribution and are found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans.^[12] The mangrove red snapper (Lutjanus argentimaculatus),^[13] and the dory snapper (Lutjanus fulviflamma) have been recorded in the Mediterranean as possible Lessepsian migrants having entered that sea through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea while the dog snapper (Lutjanus jocu), a western Atlantic species, has been recorded in the Ligurian Sea.^[14] Many species are associated with coral reefs where they are conspicuous members of the fish fauna, while some of the larger red snapper species descend into deeper waters, at least to 200 m (660 ft) in depth.^[12] 2 species, L. fuscescens and L. maxweberi, only occur in fresh and brackish waters.^[7]

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