Xenaploactis

Xenaploactis is a genus of marine ray-finned fish, velvetfishes belonging to the family Aploactinidae. This genus is found in the western Pacific Ocean and the eastern Indian Ocean.

==Taxonomy== Xenaploactis was first described as a genus in 1980 by the American ichthyologists Stuart G. Poss and William N. Eschmeyer when the reclassified Prosopodasys asperrimus, which had originally been described in 1860 by Albert Günther from the East Indies, to a new genus. Poss and Eschmeyer were also able to describe 2 new species in the genus from museum specimens. This genus is classified within the family Aploactinidae in the suborder Scorpaenoidei within the order Scorpaeniformes, although this family is also treated as a subfamily of the stonefish family Synanceiidae within the Scorpaenoidei, which in turn is treated as a superfamily within the order Perciformes. The name of the genus, Xenaploactis combines xeno meaning "strange" with the genus name Aploactis and this genus was named thus because it differs from other velvetfishes in a number of different features.