blowfish

Open encyclopedia reference

The northern puffer, Sphoeroides maculatus, is a species in the family Tetraodontidae, or pufferfishes, found along the Atlantic coast of North America. Unlike many other pufferfish species, the flesh of the northern puffer is not poisonous, although its viscera can contain poison, and high concentrations of toxins have been observed in the skin of Floridian populations. They are commonly called sugar toads in the Chesapeake Bay region, where they are eaten as a delicacy. There was widespread consumption of northern puffers during the rationing that accompanied the Second World War, establishing a commercial fishery that reached its zenith in the 1960s. In much of the Northeast, the fish is known simply as "blowfish" or "chicken of the sea". They may also be sold as "sea squab".

Wikipedia contributors, Northern puffer; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:31:42.014909+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Sphoeroides maculatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Name authority

(Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Common name

blowfish

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Teleostei

Order

Tetraodontiformes

Family

Tetraodontidae

Genus

Sphoeroides

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.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. gigaclassActinopterygii
8. superclassActinopteri
9. classTeleostei
10. orderTetraodontiformes
11. suborderTetraodontoidei
12. familyTetraodontidae Bonaparte, 1831
13. genusSphoeroides Anonymous [Lacepède], 1798
14. speciesSphoeroides maculatus (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Sphoeroides. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 154 records assigned to Tetraodontidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

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.

1. https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=158934 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.

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:4Z2G8. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.