Lonchurus

Lonchurus is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Sciaenidae, the drums and croakers. These fishes are found in the Western Atlantic.

==Taxonomy== Lonchurus was first proposed as a genus in 1793 by the German physician and naturalist Marcus Elieser Bloch when he described Lonchurus barbatus from Suriname. Subsequently L. barbatus was found to be a synonym of Bloch's 1788 species, Perca lanceolatus. This genus has been placed in the subfamily Micropogoninae by some workers, but the 5th edition of Fishes of the World does not recognise subfamilies within the Sciaenidae which it places in the order Acanthuriformes.