The Leiodon Genus

Leiodon is a small genus of pufferfish (Tetraodontidae) distributed across South and Southeast Asia and into the Western Pacific.

It currently contains two recognised species: the Asian Leiodon cutcutia and the Australasian Leiodon dapsilis. Both are euryhaline fishes inhabiting the boundary between fresh and brackish environments, forming a distinctive lineage within the family Tetraodontidae.

The name Leiodon was established by Swainson (1839) for Leiodon cutcutia, first described by Hamilton (1822) as Tetraodon cutcutia. For more than a century, the species remained under Tetraodon until molecular and morphological studies in the early 2010s clarified that the Asian Tetraodon complex was polyphyletic.

The Year the Puffers Split: Unpacking the 2013 Taxonomic Revolution

In Kottelat’s (2013) landmark Catalogue of Southeast Asian Freshwater Fishes, Asian puffers were reorganised into several distinct genera:

• Carinotetraodon – dwarf, fully freshwater puffers of South and Southeast Asia

• Pao – larger riverine freshwater species of mainland Asia

• Dichotomyctere – brackish and coastal species

• Leiodon – containing Tetraodon cutcutia, which formed its own evolutionary branch

The resurrection of Leiodon restored a valid 19th-century genus and recognised cutcutia as neither African nor Southeast Asian in origin, but part of its own evolutionary branch.

The second member, Leiodon dapsilis (Whitley 1943), native to northern Australia and southern Papua New Guinea, has since been placed within Leiodon by both FishBase and the Catalog of Fishes, establishing the genus as comprising two valid species that span Asia and the western Pacific.

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Recognised Species within the Leiodon genus:

• Leiodon cutcutia– Cutcutia Puffer The type species of the genus. Occurs widely across South and Southeast Asia, including the Ganges–Brahmaputra system (India and Bangladesh), the Ayeyarwady River (Myanmar), and drainages of Thailand, Cambodia, and the Malay Peninsula. Also recorded from Sumatra and Java. Inhabits both fresh and brackish waters, particularly tidal creeks and mangrove margins.

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• Leiodon dapsilis

  Reported from northern Australia and southern Papua New Guinea. Found in estuarine and coastal waters, often among mangroves and sandy bottoms. Its assignment to Leiodon is accepted by FishBase but considered tentative by the Catalog of Fishes pending further molecular evidence.