Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 13, Issue 1 – 25 October 2007

John E. Randall  and Rudie H. Kuiter: Wetmorella tanakai, a new wrasse (Perciformes: Labridae) from Indonesia and the Philippines, pp. 1-6

Abstract

The new labrid fish Wetmorella tanakai is described from three specimens, 35.7 to 42.0 mm in standard length:  one collected by the authors from a coral reef in 21 m off the Indonesian island of Flores, and two obtained in the aquarium trade from southern Sulawesi. The species is also known from a photograph of a Philippine fish. It is distinguished from the two other species of Wetmorella, W. albofasciata and W. nigropinnata, by having a narrow oblique white bar behind the eye and two parallel, narrow, white bars in the middle of the body that are slightly oblique. Wetmorella albofasciata has two narrow white bars on the body, but they converge as they pass ventrally. Wetmorella nigropinnata has two white bars on the body only as juveniles and subadults, but the bars are broad and slightly oblique in the other direction. Wetmorella tanakai also has a longer head, longer snout, and narrower interorbital space.