Tetraroginae

Tetraroginae is a subfamily of marine ray-finned fishes, commonly known as waspfishes or sailback scorpionfishes, belonging to the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. These fishes are native to the Indian Ocean and the West Pacific. As their name suggests, waspfishes are often venomous; having poison glands on their spines. They are bottom-dwelling fish, living at depths to . These creatures usually live in hiding places on the sea bottom. Tetraroginae, or Tetrarogidae, was first formally recognised as a taxonomic grouping in 1949 by the South African ichthyologist J.L.B. Smith. The 5th edition of Fishes of the World treats this as a subfamily of the scorpionfish family Scorpaenidae, however other authorities treat it as a valid family, the Tetrarogidae. A recent study placed the waspfishes into an expanded stonefish clade, within the family Synanceiidae, because all of these fish have a lachrymal sabre that can project a switch-blade-like mechanism out from underneath their eye. The name of the subfamily is based on the genus name Tetraroge, which was described in 1860 by Albert Günther and its name means "four clefts", an allusion to the four clfts in the gills in comparison to the five clefts in the gills of Pentaroge, now regarded as a synonym of Gymnapistes. The following genera are classified within the subfamily Tetraroginae: Genus Ablabys Kaup, 1873 Genus Centropogon Gunther, 1860 Genus Coccotropsis Barnard, 1927 Genus Cottapistus Bleeker, 1876 Genus Glyptauchen Gunther, 1860 Genus Gymnapistes Swainson, 1839 Genus Liocranium Ogilby, 1903 Genus Neocentropogon Matsubara, 1943 Genus Neovespicula Mandrytsa, 2001 Genus Notesthes Ogilby, 1903 Genus Ocosia Jordan & Starks, 1904 Genus Paracentropogon Bleeker, 1876 Genus Pseudovespicula Mandrytsa, 2001 Genus Richardsonichthys J.L.B. Smith, 1958 Genus Snyderina Jordan & Starks, 1901 Genus Tetraroge Gunther, 1860 Genus Vespicula Jordan & Richardson, 1910 The genus Vespicula is not universally recognised, its type species is Apistus trachinoides, which some workers have placed in the monotypic genus Trichosomus Swainson, 1839 with the two remaining species being classified within the genus Pseudovespicula.