argus, Chaetodon Linnaeus [C.] (ex Brünnich) 1766:464 [Systema naturae sive regna tria naturae v. 1 (pt 1); ref. 2786] India. Holotype: MJAS (whereabouts unknown). Boddaert 1770 [ref. 16973] redescribed and figured the species and referred to description by Linnaeus 1766 [ref. 2786]. See Parenti 2004:2 [ref. 27605] for detailed locality information. Based on manuscript description by M. T. Brünnich. •Valid as Prenes argus (Linnaeus 1766) -- (Endruweit 2024:64 [ref. 41040]). •Valid as Scatophagus argus (Linnaeus 1766) -- (Roberts 1978:59 [ref. 8886], Ida in Masuda et al. 1984:182 [ref. 6441], Yu & Zhou in Kuang et al. 1986:254 [ref. 26639], Allen & Swainston 1988:96 [ref. 25477], Ataur Rahman 1989:322 [ref. 24860], Kawanabe & Mizuno 1989:533 [ref. 25598], Zheng 1989:331 [ref. 21202], Larson & Martin 1990:60 [ref. 16606], Allen 1991:142 [ref. 21090], Pethiyagoda 1991:228 [ref. 20075], Talwar & Jhingran 1991:875 [ref. 20764], Ye in Pan et al. 1991:413 [ref. 23876], Kottelat et al. 1993:122 [ref. 23448], Kuiter 1993:216 [ref. 23929], Kottelat & Lim 1996:245 [ref. 23210], Randall 1995:383 [ref. 22896], Mohsin & Ambak 1996:399 [ref. 27969], Rainboth 1996:190 [ref. 22772], Allen 1997:146, 148 [ref. 23977], Chen et al. 1997:115 [ref. 26476], Larson & Williams 1997:362 [ref. 23967], Carpenter et al. 1997:218 [ref. 23922], Takahashi et al. 1997:45 [ref. 24971], Sokolovskaya et al. 1998:11 [ref. 24670], Lee & Joo 1998:164 [ref. 25738], Myers 1999:265 [ref. 23965], Mishra & Srinivasan 1999:250 [ref. 24754], Mizuno et al. 1999:9 [ref. 25311], Tyler & Sorbini 1999:370 [ref. 25312], Mishra et al. 1999:87 [ref. 25315], Johnson 1999:739 [ref. 25471], Kottelat in Randall & Lim 2000:641 [ref. 25122], Nakabo 2000:1314 [ref. 25182], Laboute & Grandperrin 2000:289 [ref. 25191], Sadovy & Cornish 2000:269 [ref. 25480], Bijukumar & Sushama 2000:186 [ref. 25703], Iwatsuki et al. 2000:102 [ref. 26368], Sakai et al. 2001:101 [ref. 25693], Hutchins 2001:36 [ref. 25847], Kottelat 2001:3624 [ref. 26299] dated 1788, Kuiter & Debelius 2001:205 [ref. 26232], Allen et al. 2002:351 [ref. 25930], Nakabo 2002:1314 [ref. 26193], Choi et al. 2003:413, 668 [ref. 26218], Allen & Adrim 2003:62 [ref. 26830] with author and date as Bloch 1788, Manilo & Bogorodsky 2003:S120 [ref. 27377], Parin 2003:S25 [ref. 28536], Parenti 2004:2 [ref. 27605], Randall et al. 2004:29 [ref. 27624] as Bloch 1788, Khan 2003:10 [ref. 27710] with author as Bloch, Ataur Rahman 2003:348 [ref. 31338], Morgan et al. 2004:151 [ref. 27718], Tan & Lim 2004:110 [ref. 27716], Larson & Pidgeon 2004:197 [ref. 28107], Randall 2005:571 [ref. 28239], Allen et al. 2006:1722 [ref. 29090], Kharin & Milovankin 2008:822 [ref. 30238], Allen et al. 2008:187 [ref. 30265], Matsuura 2009:296 [ref. 31171] with author and year as Bloch 1788, Coad 2010:268 [ref. 36620], Motomura et al. 2010:225 [ref. 31256], Allen & Erdmann 2012:1006 [ref. 31980], Larson et al. 2013:211 [ref. 32988], Kottelat 2013:438 [ref. 32989], Yoshida et al. 2013:197 [ref. 34464], Parin et al. 2014:506 [ref. 33547], Fricke et al. 2014:179 [ref. 33932], Morgan et al. 2014:33 [ref. 36567], Matsuura in Kimura et al. 2015:83 [ref. 34319], Psomadakis et al. 2015:305 [ref. 34104], Miesen et al. 2016:95 [ref. 34492], Koeda et al. 2016:98 [ref. 35333], Labatos 2017:5 [ref. 36239], Motomura et al. 2017:202 [ref. 35490], Pusey et al. 2017:56 [ref. 35250], Ali et al. 2018:338 [ref. 36183], Matsuura in Kimura et al. 2018:205 [ref. 36460], Sulaiman et al. 2018:45 [ref. 35802], Suresh et al. 2018:297 [ref. 36495], Eagderi et al. 2019:100 [ref. 37020], Fricke et al. 2019:296 [ref. 36673], Koeda in Koeda & Ho 2019:1129 [ref. 42393], Habib & Islam 2020:Supplementary table p. 25 [ref. 38321], Kim et al. 2020:177 [ref. 39118], Psomadakis et al. 2020:553 [ref. 37272], Sonoyama et al. 2020:109 [ref. 37637], Akaike et al. 2021:30 [ref. 38809], Keith et al. 2021:68 [ref. 38257], Kovačić et al. 2021:61 [ref. 39014], Taki et al. 2021:395 [ref. 39830], Heemstra 2022:208 [ref. 40142], Jamaluddin et al. 2022:[9] [ref. 39245], Nour et al. 2022:787 [ref. 41982], Borg et al. 2023:12 [ref. 42080], Çiçek et al. 2023:34 [ref. 40616], Hasan et al. 2023:2212 [ref. 40412], Jamandre 2023:158 [ref. 40455], Allen & Erdmann 2024:1162 [ref. 40796], Jawad & Al-Shwafi 2024:95 [ref. 41251], Kasim et at. 2025:8 [ref. 42537]). Current status: Valid as Scatophagus argus (Linnaeus 1766). Scatophagidae. Distribution: Southern Red Sea: Yemen; Indo-West Pacific: Persian Gulf east to Society Islands (French Polynesia), north to Korea and central Japan, south to northern Australia and New Caledonia. Eastern and central Mediterranean Sea (Red Sea migrant). IUCN (2010): Least Concern. Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine.