Scarlet wrasse

Taxobox
name = Scarlet wrasse
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Actinopterygii
ordo = Perciformes
familia = Labridae
genus = "Pseudolabrus"
species = "P. miles"
binomial = "Pseudolabrus miles"
binomial_authority = (Schneider & Forster, 1801)

The scarlet wrasse or soldier, "Pseudolabrus miles", is a wrasse of the genus "Pseudolabrus", found around New Zealand, including the Three Kings Islands, the Chatham Islands, and the Snares Islands, in reef areas at depths of between 5 and 100 metres. Its length is between 20 and 40 centimetres.

The scarlet wrasse is a brightly coloured elongate fish of typical wrasse shape. Their initial colouring is scarlet head, white chin, alternating orange-scarlet and white lines on the flanks, and three pale orange spots along the base of the long soft dorsal fin. The square-cut tail is orange with a distinctive black vertical bar on the caudal peduncle. When older these fish lose the pale dorsal spots and the body colour brightens. Older males have a bright red head and back, yellow flanks and belly with a red bar on each scale, and a prominent white patch on the body behind the head. The caudal fin develops lobes, the upper one having longer rays than the lower.

The breeding season is in winter and spring, when males aggressively maintain territories containing females.

Scarlet wrasses feed on a variety of invertebrates, hermit and other crabs, molluscs, and echinoderms.

References

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* Tony Ayling & Geoffrey Cox, "Collins Guide to the Sea Fishes of New Zealand", (William Collins Publishers Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 1982) ISBN 0-00-216987-8
* Wade Doak, "A Photographic Guide to Sea Fishes of New Zealand", (New Holland Publishers (NZ) Ltd, Auckland, New Zealand 2003) ISBN 1-877246-95-6