The thornfishes are a family, Bovichtidae, of fishes in the order Perciformes

Perciformes

The Perciformes, also called the Percomorphi or Acanthopteri, is one of the largest orders of vertebrates, containing about 40% of all bony fish. Perciformes means perch-like. They belong to the class of ray-finned fish and comprise over 7,000 species found in almost all aquatic environments...

. The family is spelled Bovichthyidae in J. S. Nelson's Fishes of the World

Fishes of the World

Fishes of the World by Joseph S. Nelson is a standard reference for fish systematics. Now in its fourth edition, the work is a comprehensive overview of the 25,000-plus species known to science....

. They are native to coastal waters off Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, and South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and to rivers and lakes of southeast Australia and Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

.

Phylogenetic analysis of morphological characters has revealed that the family Bovichtidae is not a monophyletic group.

Genera

There are ten species in three genera. In addition, the genus Pseudaphritis (Castelnau, 1872) has sometimes been included in this family.

• Genus Bovichtus Valenciennes
  Achille Valenciennes
  Achille Valenciennes was a French zoologist.Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes' study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology...
  
   in Cuvier
  Georges Cuvier
  Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...
  
   and Valenciennes
  Achille Valenciennes
  Achille Valenciennes was a French zoologist.Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. Valenciennes' study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology...
  
  , 1832
  • Bovichtus angustifrons (Regan, 1913).
  • Bovichtus argentinus (MacDonagh, 1931).
  • Bovichtus chilensis (Regan, 1913).
  • Bovichtus diacanthus (Carmichael, 1819).
  • Bovichtus oculus Hardy, 1989.
  • Bovichtus psychrolutes (Günther, 1860).
  • Bovichtus variegatus
    Bovichtus variegatus
    Bovichtus variegatus is a thornfish of the family Bovichtidae, found around New Zealand from the Wellington area southwards. Their length is between 15 and 25 cm.-References:...
    
    thornfish Richardson
    John Richardson (naturalist)
    Sir John Richardson was a Scottish naval surgeon, naturalist and arctic explorer.Richardson was born at Dumfries. He studied medicine at Edinburgh University, and became a surgeon in the navy in 1807. He traveled with John Franklin in search of the Northwest Passage on the Coppermine Expedition of...
    
    , 1846.
  • Bovichtus veneris (Sauvage, 1879).
• Genus Cottoperca Steindachner
  Franz Steindachner
  Franz Steindachner was an Austrian zoologist.- Work and career :Being interested in natural history, Steindachner took up the study of fossil fishes on the recommendation of his friend Eduard Suess...
  
  , 1876
  • Cottoperca gobio (Günther, 1861) (synonym of Cottoperca trigliodes Forster, 1801 )
• Genus Halaphritis Last, Balushkin and Hutchins, 2002
  • Halaphritis platycephala Last, Balushkin & Hutchins, 2002.