The blunthead puffer, Sphoeroides pachygaster (Muller and Troschel, 1848) (Pisces: Tetraodontidae) new to Nova Scotia and Canada.

Abstract

The puffers (Tetraodontidae) are small stout-bodied fishes which, when threatened, inflate a sac-like expansion of the gullet, dramatically expand their size and become spherical in shape. Two species, the oceanic puffer, Lagocephalus lagocephalus (Linnaeus, 1758), and the northern puffer, Sphoeroides maculatus (B loch and Schneider, 1801), have been previously reported in Canadian waters. We follow the format of Leim and Scott (1966) in our description of the blunthead puffer, Sphoeroides pachygaster, the most recently reported species of puffer for Canadian inshore waters.