The extant species are marine fish found in the Indo-Pacific and eastern Mediterranean. They are important foodfishes and some are popular in the aquarium trade.[3]
The Siganidae was first formally described as a family in 1837 by the Scottishnaval surgeon, naturalist and arcticexplorer Sir John Richardson.[2] The genus Siganus was described in 1775 by the Danish zoologistJohan Christian Fabricius with Siganus rivulatus, a species also described by Fabricius in 1775, designated as the type species. The description was based on notes taken by the naturalist Peter Forsskål when he was on the Danish Arabia expedition (1761–67) and was published in Carsten Niebuhr's Descriptiones animalium avium, amphibiorum, piscium, insectorum, vermium; quae in itinere orientali observavit Petrus Forskål. Post mortem auctoris edidit Carsten Niebuhr. Catalog of Fishes lists the authority as『Fabricius [J. C.] (ex Forsskål) in Niebuhr 1775』and states that the genus is valid as "Siganus Fabricius 1775".[4]
Carl Linnaeus originally described the genus Teuthis, with the type species being Teuthis hepatus. One of the type specimens he used looks like Siganus javus, although the other is definitely not a rabbitfish, and the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature has been asked to suppress the name Teuthis in favour of Siganus to reflect the prevailing usage.[5]
^ abRichard van der Laan; William N. Eschmeyer & Ronald Fricke (2014). "Family-group names of Recent fishes". Zootaxa. 3882 (2): 1–230. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
^ abcdFroese, Rainer, and Daniel Pauly, eds. (2023). "Siganidae"inFishBase. October 2023 version.
^Maurice Kottelat (2013). "The fishes of the inland waters of southeast Asia: a catalogue and core bibliography of the fishes known to occur in freshwaters, mangroves and estuaries". Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (Supplement No. 27).
