Indian vagabond butterflyfish

The Indian Vagabond Butterflyfish, Chaetodon decussatus, is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae). It is found in the Indo-West Pacific, from the Maldives via India, Sri Lanka and the Andaman Sea to the westernmost portion of the Indonesian archipelago.[2]

Indian Vagabond Butterflyfish

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Actinopterygii
Order:
Perciformes
Family:
Chaetodontidae
Genus:
Chaetodon (but see text)
Subgenus:
Rabdophorus
Species:
C. decussatus
Binomial name
Chaetodon decussatus
G. Cuvier, 1829
Synonyms

Chaetodon decassatus (lapsus)

Growing to a maximum of 20 cm (nearly 8 in) long, it is found on rich coral reefs and also on rubble and rocky areas. The monogamous adults swim in pairs and may be territorial and aggressive to other Chaetodon; juveniles are solitary. The Indian Vagabond Butterflyfish feeds largely on algae and coral polyps. They are oviparous.[2]

It belongs to the large subgenus Rabdophorus which might warrant recognition as a distinct genus. In this group, it almost certainly is a rather close relative of the Threadfin Butterflyfish (C. auriga) and the Vagabond Butterflyfish (C. vagabundus). C. decussatus might be closer to the Threadfin Butterflyfish than to the common Vagabond Butterflyfish; as C. vagabundus has yielded abnormal DNA sequence data this is hard to say however. The C. auriga species group shares the characteristic pattern of two areas of ascending and descending oblique lines; species differ conspicuously in hindpart coloration.[3][4]

References
  1. Myers, R. & Pratchett, M. 2010. Chaetodon decussatus. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.1. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 10 September 2013.
  2. FishBase [2008]: Chaetodon decussatus. Retrieved 2008-SEP-01.
  3. 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)
  4. 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 Archived 2007-08-11 at the Wayback Machine)


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