Description

SINGLE PAPER

Volume 8, Issue 1 – November 2003

Gerald R. Allen and Roger C. Steene: Chaetodontoplus vanderloosi, a new species of angelfish (Pomacanthidae) from Papua New Guinea, pp. 23-30

Abstract

A new species of pomacanthid fish, Chaetodontoplus vanderloosi, is described from 3 specimens, 117.8-125.2 mm SL, collected at Samarai Island, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea in 1972 and 2003. It is closely related to C. dimidiatus and C. melanosoma from Indonesia and the Philippines, but differs in colour pattern. The new species is mainly black except the head and adjacent dorsoanterior body is light grey to nearly white, with a predominately black caudal fin (except broad yellow posterior margin). Small juveniles are mainly black with a yellow median facial band, a yellow diagonal band from just in front of the dorsal fin to the pelvic fins, a broad yellow margin covering most of the dorsal fin, and a yellow caudal fin with a black submarginal bar.