Girdled wrasse

Girdled wrasse
Girdled wrasse, Notolabrus cinctus Drawing by Dr Tony Ayling
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Perciformes
Family:	Labridae
Genus:	Notolabrus
Species:	N. cinctus
Binomial name
Notolabrus cinctus (Hutton, 1877)

The girdled wrasse (Notolabrus cinctus) is a wrasse of the genus Notolabrus, found around the South Island of New Zealand including the Chatham Islands and Snares Islands at depths of between 20 and 90 metres. Its length is between 20 and 35 centimetres.

The girdled wrasse is an uncommon fish which at first sight could be mistaken for a New Zealand spotty, although it grows to be up to one third larger.

Young fish are a uniform olive brown, while adults are brown-grey with a single wide blue-grey vertical bar down each side. There is no visible difference between the sexes.

Young girdled wrasse remove parasites from fish, moving on to their adult diet of molluscs, crabs and other crustaceans, including planktonic animals.

References

• "Notolabrus cinctus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 18 April. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
• Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2006). "Notolabrus cinctus" in FishBase. January 2006 version.
• 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