Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 5, Issue 2 – February 2002

Gerald R. Allen and D. Ross Robertson: Halichoeres salmofasciatus, a new species of wrasse (Pisces: Labridae) from Isla del Coco, tropical eastern Pacific, pp. 65-72

Abstract

Halichoeres salmofasciatus, n. sp., is described from 23 specimens, 28.5-62.9 mm SL, collected at Isla del Coco, Costa Rica, in 1997. Among the 12 other known species of this genus in the tropical eastern Pacific it appears to be most closely related to H. malpelo and H. melanotis, but differs from both those species in maximum size, colour pattern, and certain meristics. The terminal phase adult of H. salmofasciatus has an olive back, an indistinct dark olive stripe along the body at eye level, and a pale orange tail with a broad, grey terminal edge. The initial phase adult of H. salmofasiatus in pale grey and white with two salmon red stripes running along the length of the body (one at eye level and a narrower one along the upper black), two black spots within the midlateral stripe (one on the opercular membrane, the other on the caudal peduncle), and a pale orange tail.