Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 21, 2026

Bodianus

Bodianus is a genus of fishes in the family of wrasses, the Labridae, which are commonly known as hogfishes. They are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. These species have many parasites.

Last revised
Jul 21, 2026
Read time
≈ 4 min
Length
858 w
Citations
12
Source
Bodianus
Temporal range:
Middle Miocene to present1
Bodianus loxozonus
Bodianus perditio
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Labriformes
Family: Labridae
Subfamily: Hypsigenyinae
Genus: Bodianus
Bloch, 1790
Type species
Bodianus bodianus
Bloch, 17902
Synonyms3
List
  • Chaeropsodes Gilchrist & Thompson, 1909
  • Cheiliopsis Steindachner 1863
  • Clepticus G. Cuvier, 1829
  • Cossyphus Valenciennes, 1839
  • Diastodon Bowdich, 1825
  • Euhypsocara Gill, 1863
  • Gymnopropoma Gill, 1863
  • Harpe Lacepède, 1802
  • Lepidaplois Gill, 1862
  • Paralepidaplois Gomon, 2006
  • Peneverreo Gomon, 2006
  • Pimelometopon T. N. Gill, 1864
  • PriobodianusGomon, 2006
  • Pseudolepidaplois Bauchot & Blanc, 1961
  • Ronchifex Gistel, 1848
  • Semicossyphus Günther, 1861
  • Trochocopus Günther, 1862
  • Verreo Jordan & Snyder, 1902
  • Verriculus Jordan & Evermann, 1903

Bodianus is a genus of fishes in the family of wrasses, the Labridae, which are commonly known as hogfishes. They are found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. These species have many parasites.4

Taxonomy

Bodianus belongs to the wrasse tribe Hypsigenyini. Gomon (2006) split up the species in Bodianus amongst 10 subgenera. However, these subclassifications of Bodianus only roughly line up with findings of more recent phylogenetic analyses.5

The three species B. darwini, B. pulcher, and B. reticulatus, commonly called the sheephead wrasses, have traditionally formed their own genus Semicossyphus. Although at least the latter two species form a monophyletic lineage with each other,5 Semicossyphus has subsequently been synonymized with Bodianus, as molecular phylogenetics found that Semicossyphus is nested deep within Bodianus.567

Similarly, Clepticus parrae and likely all Clepticus species also nest within Bodianus.5

Species

B. atrolumbus source ↗
B. pulchellus source ↗
B. pulcher & B. reticulatus, formerly Semicossyphus.

Currently, 45 species are recognized in this genus:

References

References

  1. Sepkoski, J.J.Jr (2002): A Compendium of Fossil Marine Animal Genera. Archived February 20, 2009, at the Wayback Machine Bulletins of American Paleontology, 363: 1-560.
  2. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Bodianus". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 26 December 2019.
  3. Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Labridae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
  4. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Bodianus". FishBase. June 2016 version.
  5. Santini, Francesco; Sorenson, Laurie; Alfaro, Michael E. (June 2016). "Phylogeny and biogeography of hogfishes and allies (Bodianus, Labridae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 99: 1–6. Bibcode:2016MolPE..99....1S. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2016.02.011. PMID 26944013.
  6. Hughes, Lily C; Nash, Chloe M; White, William T; Westneat, Mark W (2023-06-17). Matschiner, Michael (ed.). "Concordance and Discordance in the Phylogenomics of the Wrasses and Parrotfishes (Teleostei: Labridae)". Systematic Biology. 72 (3): 530–543. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syac072. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 36331534.
  7. "CAS - Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes". researcharchive.calacademy.org. Retrieved 2025-01-12.
  8. Randall, J.E. & Victor, B.C. (2013): Bodianus atrolumbus (Valenciennes 1839), a valid species of labrid fish from the southwest Indian Ocean. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 13: 44–61.
  9. Gomon, M.F. & Walsh, F. (2016): A new pygmy hogfish (Labridae: Bodianus) of the subgenus Trochocopus from the tropical southern Pacific Ocean. Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation, 23: 12-20.