Fourspot Butterflyfish
Chaetodon quadrimaculatus
- Class
- Ray-finned fish
- Rarity
- Common
- Observations
- 1,151
- Most observed in
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Conservation
- Least Concern
Description
The four-spotted butterflyfish or fourspot butterflyfish (Chaetodon quadrimaculatus) is a species of butterflyfish (family Chaetodontidae) found in the Pacific Ocean from the Ryukyus, Ogasawara (Bonin) Islands and Taiwan to the Hawaiian, Marquesan, and Pitcairn islands, south to the Samoan and Austral Islands and the Marianas and Marshall Islands in Micronesia. The fourspot butterflyfish is a marine coralivorous organism. Therefore, its noted geographic distribution, as well as population-level spatial distribution and temporal variation in density, is correlated to relative distributions and abundance of the corals that butterflyfish are dependent on for food. It is a quite distinct species, but most closely related to the speckled butterflyfish (C. citrinellus). Together they are basal in the subgenus Exornator, and might be intermediate between the core group of this subgenus and the species of the Rhombochaetodon (or Roaops) lineage. If that is correct, the latter would require to be merged into Exornator. If the genus Chaetodon is split up, Exornator might become a subgenus of Lepidochaetodon. Butterflyfish as a family are a common marine aquarium specimen as a result of their varying colors and patterns, and contribute to 4% of the global fish trade.
Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article “Fourspot butterflyfish”.