longhorn cowfish
Lactoria cornuta (Linnaeus, 1758)
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
The longhorn cowfish (Lactoria cornuta), also called the horned boxfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Ostraciidae, the boxfish. This species is recognizable by its long horns that protrude from the front of its head, rather like those of a cow or bull. They are a resident of the Indo-Pacific region and can grow up to 50 cm (20 in) long.
Adults are reef fish, often solitary and territorial, and live around sand or rubble bottom up to a depth of 50 m (160 ft). They are omnivorous, feeding upon benthic algae, various microorganisms, and foraminiferans that it strains from sediments, sponges, polychaete worms and from sand flats. It also can eat mollusks, small crustaceans, and small fish - it's able to feed on benthic invertebrates by blowing jets of water into the sandy substrate. Longhorn cowfish protect the coral reefs they live in by being predators of the invertebrates that destroy the reefs. They are also important in the growth and creation of coral reefs for this same reason.
Wikipedia contributors, Longhorn cowfish; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T06:00:39.202846+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Lactoria cornuta (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Name authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Common name
- longhorn cowfish
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Tetraodontiformes
- Family
- Ostraciidae
- Genus
- Lactoria
- 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
- orderTetraodontiformes
- suborderBalistoidei
- familyOstraciidae Rafinesque, 1810
- genusLactoria Jordan & Fowler, 1902
- speciesLactoria cornuta (Linnaeus, 1758)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Lactoria. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| roundbelly cowfishLactoria diaphana (Bloch & Schneider, 1801) | OstraciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| thornback cowfishLactoria fornasini (Bianconi, 1846) | OstraciidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Lactoria paschae (Rendahl, 1921) | OstraciidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Ostracion cornutus Linnaeus, 1758 Linnaeus, 1758 | synonym |
| Lactoria cornutus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Linnaeus, 1758) | 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.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=219904 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:3RSXX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.