Ornate butterflyfish

Ornate butterflyfish
Ornate Butterflyfish
At Sipadan Island (Malaysia)
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Chaetodon (but see text)
Subgenus: "Citharoedus"
Species: C. ("C.") ornatissimus
Binomial name
Chaetodon ("Citharoedus") ornatissimus
Cuvier, 1831

The Ornate Butterflyfish, Chaetodon ornatissimus, is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae). It is found in depths down to 36 m.[1]

It is a close relative of the Mailed Butterflyfish (C. reticulatus) and the Scrawled Butterflyfish (C. meyeri). Together they make up the subgenus called "Citharoedus", but as this name had already been used for a mollusc genus when it was given to the fish, it is not valid. They are probably quite close to the subgenus Corallochaetodon which contains for example the Melon Butterflyfish (C. trifasciatus). Like these, they might be separated in Megaprotodon if the genus Chaetodon is split up.[2]

Footnotes

  1. ^ FishBase [2008]
  2. ^ Fessler & Westneat (2007), Hsu et al. (2007)

References

  • Fessler, Jennifer L. & Westneat, Mark W. (2007): Molecular phylogenetics of the butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae): Taxonomy and biogeography of a global coral reef fish family. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 45(1): 50–68. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2007.05.018 (HTML abstract)
  • FishBase [2008]: Chaetodon ornatissimus. Retrieved 2008-SEP-01.
  • Hsu, Kui-Ching; Chen, Jeng-Ping & Shao, Kwang-Tsao (2007): Molecular phylogeny of Chaetodon (Teleostei: Chaetodontidae) in the Indo-West Pacific: evolution in geminate species pairs and species groups. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 14: 77-86. PDF fulltext
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