Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 5, Issue 3 – June 2002

Gerald R. Allen and John E. Randall: A new species of Wrasse (Labridae: Choerodon) from the Tropical Western Pacific, pp. 109-113

Abstract

Choerodon gomoni is described from six specimens, 86.1-103.9 mm SL, from the Chesterfield Bank, Coral Sea and the Banggai Islands, Indonesia. It belogs to the Peaolopesia “complex” of species that includes C. sugilltum (northern Australia), C. margaritiferus (Philippines), C. japonicus (Taiwan and Japan), C. gymnogenys (East Africa), and another undescribed East African species. The members of this complex are morphologically similar and best separated on the basis of colour pattern. Choerodon gomoni is distinguished by its male and female colour patterns. The male pattern, which includes a large reddish spot on the middle of the back and a pale yellow lateral stripe, is particularly distinctive.