Neocentropogon is a poorly known genus of marine ray-finned fishes, waspfishes belonging to the subfamily Tetraroginae, which is classified as part of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives.

Neocentropogon was first formally described as a genus in 1943 by the Japanese ichthyologist Kiyomatsu Matsubara, with Paracentropogon aeglefinus, which had been described in 1913 by the German born Dutch zoologist Max Carl Wilhelm Weber from various locations in Indonesia, designated as the type species of what as then considered to be a monotypic genus.

[1][2] This taxon is included in the subfamily Tetraroginae within the Scorpaenidae in the 5th edition of Fishes of the World[3] however other authorities place that subfamily within the stonefish family Synanceiidae,[1] while other authorities classify this subfamily as a family in its own right.

[5] Six recognized species are in this genus:[4] Neocentropogon wapfishes are characterised by having an oblique dorsal profile of the head, bodies which are covered in cycloid scales, teeth on the palatine and between 13 and 16 spines in the dorsal fin.

[6] The largest species is the threespotted waspfish (N. trimaculatus) which has a maximum published standard length of 81 cm (32 in),[7] although most species are much smaller than this, having lengths of less than 20 cm (7.9 in).