volitans, Gasterosteus Linnaeus [C.] 1758:296 [Systema Naturae, Ed. X v. 1; ref. 2787] Ambon Island, Molucca Islands, Indonesia. No types known. Type catalog: Wheeler 1958:237-238 [ref. 13434]. See Kochzius et al. 2003:401 [ref. 27290]. The "syntype" BMNH 1853.11.12.9 is not this species (Allen & Erdmann 2008:137 [ref. 29479]). Based on the 'Perca dorso monopterygio, capite cavernoso ...' of Gronow 1756:33 [ref. 20783], which was based on the 'Ikan Kalkoen Sowanggi, Djantan' and the 'Ikan Kalkoen Sowanggi Betina' of Valentyn 1726:413, 415 Pl. 210, Pl. 213 [ref. 30358], the 'Perca Amboinensis Neuhoffii' of Willughby 1686:Appendix p. 1, Pl. 2 (fig. 3) [ref. 30164], and the 'Ican Swangi' or 'Perca Amboinensis ... volans pinnis longissimus' of Ruysch 1718:4, Pl. 3 (fig. 1) [ref. 30355]. •Valid as Pterois volitans (Linnaeus 1758) -- (Paulin 1982:445 [ref. 23678], Dor 1984:86 [ref. 29757], Shimizu in Masuda et al. 1984:316 [ref. 6441], Yatou in Okamura et al. 1985:575, 721 [ref. 8056], Schultz 1986:66 [ref. 22245], Allen & Swainston 1988:48 [ref. 25477], Paxton et al. 1989:447 [ref. 12442], Paulin et al. 1989:167 [ref. 24556], Randall et al. 1990:80 [ref. 15987], Kuiter 1993:114 [ref. 23929], Francis 1993:159 [ref. 25479], Randall 1995:108 [ref. 22896], Motomura & Iwatsuki 1997:129 [ref. 23963], Allen 1997:76 [ref. 23977], Larson & Williams 1997:353 [ref. 23967], Chen et al. 1997:167 [ref. 26476], Kuiter 1997:90 [ref. 25488], Randall et al. 1997:80 [ref. 25919], Myers 1999:101 [ref. 23965], Poss 1999:2332 [ref. 24796], Johnson 1999:727 [ref. 25471], Randall 1999:10 [ref. 25829], Allen 2000:86 [ref. 37268], Nakabo 2000:569 [ref. 25086], Poss in Randall & Lim 2000:605 [ref. 25122], Laboute & Grandperrin 2000:165 [ref. 25191], Sadovy & Cornish 2000:64 [ref. 25480], Randall & Earle 2000:10 [ref. 25806], Allen 2000:97 [ref. 25868], Mandrytsa 2001:275 [ref. 25636], Hutchins 2001:27 [ref. 25847], Whitfield et al. 2002:289 [ref. 26090], Nakabo 2002:569 [ref. 26001], Allen & Adrim 2003:29 [ref. 26830], Poss & Eschmeyer 2003:1238 [ref. 27048], Myers & Donaldson 2003:619 [ref. 27495], Mishra & Krishnan 2003:26 [ref. 27712], Randall et al. 2004:10 [ref. 27624], Hare & Whitfield 2004:2 [ref. 27631], Nelson et al. 2004:113 [ref. 27807], Randall 2005:117 [ref. 28239], Fishelson 2006:343 [ref. 28669], Allen et al. 2006:880 [ref. 29002], Allen & Erdmann 2008:128 [ref. 29479], Freshwater et al. 2009:39 [ref. 30268], Lasso-Alcala & Posada 2010:S53 [ref. 30893], Motomura et al. 2010:90 [ref. 31256], Aguilar-Perera & Tuz-Sulun 2010:S9 [ref. 31683], Fricke et al. 2011:378 [ref. 31242], Lasso-Alcalá et al. 2011:575 [ref. 31520], Betancur-R. et al. 2011:1 [ref. 32977], Allen & Erdmann 2012:223 [ref. 31980], Page et al. 2013:116 [ref. 32708], Smith-Vaniz & Collette 2013:170 [ref. 32953], Larson et al. 2013:82 [ref. 32988], Yoshida et al. 2013:79 [ref. 34464], Fricke et al. 2014:51 [ref. 33932], Smith-Vaniz & Jelks 2014:37 [ref. 33341], Delrieu-Trottin et al. 2015:5 [ref. 33988], Duffy & Ahyong 2015:112 [ref. 36167], Motomura & Struthers 2015:1096 [ref. 34285], Motomura et al. 2015:18 [ref. 34709], Robertson et al. 2016:143, 144 [ref. 34961], Koeda et al. 2016:21 [ref. 35333], Koeda et al. 2016:3 [ref. 35354], Tornabene & Baldwin 2017:10 [ref. 35339], Motomura et al. 2017:68 [ref. 35490], Wilcox et al. 2017:10 [ref. 35525] with hybrids in the western Atlantic, Golani & Fricke 2018:53 [ref. 36273], Fricke et al. 2019:101 [ref. 36673], Hoschke et al. 2019:155 [ref. 36626], Habib & Islam 2020:Supplementary table p. 28 [ref. 38321] misidentified, Kwik & Lim 2020:16 [ref. 38869], Robertson et al. 2020:161 [ref. 38098], Sonoyama et al. 2020:44 [ref. 37637], Caires et al. in Marceniuk et al. 2021:600 [ref. 38945], Escobar-Sierra et al. 2021:82 [ref. 38844], Kovačić et al. 2021:90 [ref. 39014], Bennema & van Moorsel 2022:73 [ref. 39585], Cintra et al. 2022:2 [ref. 39558], Gloerfelt-Tarp & Kailola 2022:117 [ref. 41223], Carvalho-Filho 2023:108 [ref. 40480], Moazzam & Osmany 2023:304 [ref. 40698], Murase et al. 2023:39 [ref. 40935], Page et al. 2023:178 [ref. 40505], Chou et al. 2023:6 [ref. 41366], Allen & Erdmann 2024:240 [ref. 40796]). Current status: Valid as Pterois volitans (Linnaeus 1758). Scorpaenidae: Pteroinae. Distribution: Eastern Indian Ocean, western Pacific: Christmas Island and Cocos-Keeling Islands east to Marquesas Islands, north to Sea of Japan, south to Rottnest Island (Western Australia), Jervis Bay (New South Wales, Australia), Lord Howe Island, Kermadec Islands and French Polynesia. Invasive in western Atlantic: Florida (U.S.A.) south to southern Brazil, including Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea. IUCN (2016): Least concern. Habitat: marine.