Hippocampus angustus Günther, 1870
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Hippocampus angustus, commonly known as the narrow-bellied seahorse, western Australian seahorse, or western spiny seahorse, is a species of marine fish of the family Syngnathidae. It is found in waters off of Australia, from Perth to Hervey Bay, and the southern portion of Papua New Guinea in the Torres Strait. It lives over soft-bottom substrates, adjacent to coral reefs, and on soft corals at depths of 3–63 metres (9.8–206.7 ft). It is expected to feed on small crustaceans, similar to other seahorses. This species is ovoviviparous, with males carrying eggs in a brood pouch before giving birth to live young. This type of seahorse is monogamous in its mating patterns. The males only fertilize one female's eggs for the mating season because of the population distribution. While some seahorses can be polygamous because they are denser in population, this type of seahorse is more sparsely distributed and the cost of reproduction is high. Therefore, the risk to reproduce due to predatory and distributary factors limits this breed to one mate, often finding the same mate season after season.
Wikipedia contributors, Narrow-bellied seahorse; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T22:48:25.936633+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hippocampus angustus Günther, 1870
- Name authority
- Günther, 1870
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Syngnathiformes
- Family
- Syngnathidae
- Genus
- Hippocampus
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderSyngnathiformes
- familySyngnathidae Bonaparte, 1831
- subfamilySyngnathinae Bonaparte, 1831
- genusHippocampus Rafinesque, 1810
- speciesHippocampus angustus Günther, 1870
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Hippocampus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Hippocampus algiricus Kaup, 1856 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus barbouri Jordan & Richardson, 1908 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus bargibanti Whitley, 1970 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| giraffe seahorseHippocampus camelopardalis Bianconi, 1854 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus capensis Boulenger, 1900 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus casscsio Zhang, Qin, Wang & Lin, 2016 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus debelius Gomon & Kuiter, 2009 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| lined seahorseHippocampus erectus Perry, 1810 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus fisheri Jordan & Evermann, 1903 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| seahorseHippocampus hippocampus (Linnaeus, 1758) | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pacific seahorseHippocampus ingens Girard, 1858 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Hippocampus jugumus Kuiter, 2001 | SyngnathidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Hippocampus hendriki Kuiter, 2001 Kuiter, 2001 | synonym |
| Hippocampus multispinus Kuiter, 2001 Kuiter, 2001 | synonym |
| Hippocampus erinaceus Günther, 1870 Günther, 1870 | synonym |
| Hippocampus grandiceps Kuiter, 2001 Kuiter, 2001 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- Günther, A. (1870). Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Physostomi, containing the families Gymnotidae, Symbranchidae, Muraenidae, Pegasidae, and of the Lophobranchii, Plectognathi, Dipnoi, ...[thru] ... Leptocardii, in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum., v. 8: i–xxv + 1–549. Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3LZKB. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.