Guineafowl puffer
Arothron meleagris (Anonymous, 1798)
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.
Guineafowl puffer (Arothron meleagris), Cabo Pulmo, Baja California, Mexico. This pufferfish can be found in the Indo-Pacific, and Eastern Pacific. It reaches 50 centimetres (20 in) in length. Due to their low swimming speed, Arothron meleagris depend upon other forms of defense, such as modified scales, inflating with water or gas, and Tetrodotoxin (a deadly neurotoxin). The diet of this species mainly consists of corals and invertebrates such as tunicates, crustose coralline algae, sponges and echinoids. It is occasionally harvested for the aquarium trade.
Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Arothron meleagris, commonly known as the guineafowl puffer or golden puffer, is a pufferfish from the Indo-Pacific, and Eastern Pacific. It is occasionally caught for the aquarium trade. It reaches 50 centimetres (20 in) in length.
Guineafowl puffers have heavy rounded bodies that are uniformly black with numerous small white spots (black puffer or botete negro), bright yellow spots (golden puffer or botete dorado) or a mixture of the two morphologies with bright yellow spots and black patches. They have large blunt heads with short snouts and are equipped with a set of massive teeth. They have small and similarly shaped anal and dorsal fins that are well back on their body. Their caudal fin base is long and deep and their caudal fin is rounded. Their body is covered with small denticles that resemble coarse sandpaper.
When this fish is scared or frightened, they inflate and make themselves larger, exposing the denticles.
Wikipedia contributors, Arothron meleagris; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T06:39:07.542005+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Arothron meleagris (Anonymous, 1798)
- Name authority
- (Anonymous, 1798)
- Common name
- Guineafowl puffer
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Tetraodontiformes
- Family
- Tetraodontidae
- Genus
- Arothron
- 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
- suborderTetraodontoidei
- familyTetraodontidae Bonaparte, 1831
- genusArothron Müller, 1841
- speciesArothron meleagris (Anonymous, 1798)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Arothron. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Arothron carduus (Cantor, 1849) | TetraodontidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| masked pufferArothron diadematus (Rüppell, 1829) | TetraodontidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Starry toadoArothron firmamentum (Temminck & Schlegel, 1850) | TetraodontidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Arothron manilensis (Marion de Procé, 1822) | TetraodontidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| map pufferArothron mappa (Lesson, 1831) | TetraodontidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Arothron multilineatus Matsuura, 2016 | TetraodontidaeChordata | 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 |
|---|---|
| Tetraodon setosus Smith, 1886 Smith, 1886 | synonym |
| Tetraodon lacrymatus Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 Quoy & Gaimard, 1824 | synonym |
| Tetrodon setosus Smith, 1886 Smith, 1886 | synonym |
| Tetraodon meleagris Anonymous, 1798 Anonymous, 1798 | synonym |
| Arothron ophryas Cope, 1871 Cope, 1871 | synonym |
| Arothron setosus (Smith, 1886) (Smith, 1886) | synonym |
| Ovoides latifrons Jenkins, 1901 Jenkins, 1901 | synonym |
| Tetrodon meleagris Anonymous, 1798 Anonymous, 1798 | synonym |
| Arothron meleagridis (Anonymous, 1798) (Anonymous, 1798) | 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=219926 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:5VST8. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.