Eightband butterflyfish

Eightband butterflyfish
Eight-banded Butterflyfish
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Perciformes
Family: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Chaetodon (but see text)
Subgenus: Discochaetodon
Species: C. (D.) octofasciatus
Binomial name
Chaetodon (Discochaetodon) octofasciatus
Bloch, 1787

The Eight-banded Butterflyfish or eightband butterflyfish (Chaetodon octofasciatus), is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae). It is found in the Pacific Ocean from Indonesia and the Philippines via Papua New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef to the Solomon Islands, Palau, and north to China; it extends into the Indian Ocean at least to the Maldives, India and Sri Lanka.[1]

This small butterflyfish grows to a maximum of 12 cm long (nearly 5 in). Its body is white, shading into yellowish on the belly. It has 7 black vertical stripes over head and sides and one centrally on the snout. The third line extends onto the ventral fins. There is a strong black margin on the aft dorsal and anal fins.[1]

It is a close relative of the Golden Butterflyfish (C. aureofasciatus) and less close to Rainford's Butterflyfish (C. rainfordi). Probably including the Three-striped Butterflyfish (C. tricinctus) also, these diverse but always high-bodied species make up the subgenus Discochaetodon, of which C. octofasciatus is the type species. They appear to be close relatives of the subgenus Tetrachaetodon which includes for example the Mirror Butterflyfish (C. speculum) and together with these would probably go in Megaprotodon if Chaetodon is split up.[2]

The Eight-banded Butterflyfish is found at depths between 3 and 20 m in coral reefs. Adults swim in pairs in coral-rich areas of sheltered inshore and lagoon reefs; juveniles can often be seen in groups among Acropora corals. This species feeds exclusively on coral polyps.[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c 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 octofasciatus. Version of 2008-JAN-14. 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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