Teardrop butterflyfish
| Teardrop butterflyfish | |
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| Scientific classification | |
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| Genus: | Chaetodon (but see text)
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| Subgenus: | Lepidochaetodon
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| Species: | C. unimaculatus
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| Binomial name | |
| Chaetodon unimaculatus Bloch, 1787
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The teardrop butterflyfish (Chaetodon unimaculatus) is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae).[2]
Distribution
The fish is native to the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
It is found from Maritime Southeast Asia east to the Hawaiian Islands, Marquesan Islands, and Ducie Island; north to southern Japan; south to the Lord Howe and Rapa islands; and throughout Micronesia.
Taxonomy
In the Indian Ocean it is replaced by the yellow teardrop butterflyfish (Chaetodon interruptus), now a separate species but previously considered a subspecies of Chaetodon unimaculatus.
In its subgenus Lepidochaetodon it is sometimes considered a separate genus. It is only distantly related to other Chaetodon species such as the sunburst butterflyfish (Chaetodon kleinii) and the Tahiti butterflyfish (Chaetodon trichrous).[3]
Footnotes
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 unimaculatus. 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
