''Cirrhilabrus wakanda'', the vibranium fairy wrasse, is a species of fairy wrasse from mesophotic reefs at depths of in the western

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

off

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. It was first collected off the coast of

Zanzibar Zanzibar is a Tanzanian archipelago off the coast of East Africa. It is located in the Indian Ocean, and consists of many small Island, islands and two large ones: Unguja (the main island, referred to informally as Zanzibar) and Pemba Island. ...

, Tanzania by scientists from the

California Academy of Sciences The California Academy of Sciences is a research institute and natural history museum in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, that is among the largest List of natural history museums, museums of natural history in the world, housing over ...

. Its separation from the very similar '' C. rubrisquamis'' of the

Chagos Islands The Chagos Archipelago (, ) or Chagos Islands (formerly , and later the Oil Islands) is a group of seven atolls comprising more than 60 islands in the Indian Ocean about south of the Maldives archipelago. This chain of islands is the southernmo ...

needs confirmation.

Etymology

The species is named after the fictional sovereign state

Wakanda Wakanda (), officially the Kingdom of Wakanda, is a fictional country appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the country first appeared in ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' ...

from

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

and the

Marvel Cinematic Universe The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is an American media franchise and shared universe centered on List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films, a series of superhero films produced by Marvel Studios. The films are based on characters that appe ...

Description

Based on a small number of measured specimens, ''C. wakanda'' is up to about in

standard length Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of fish anatomy, their anatomies, for data used in many areas of ichthyology, including Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy and fishery biology. Overall length Standard length (SL) is ...

. The body is moderately elongated and compressed. Males have yellow

head A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...

s, with purple and blue bodies. Females and juveniles are very similar. Both sexes have a pair of prominent facial stripes above and below the orbit; and both sexes have notable purple scales and elements that persist and stain purple. A purple chain-link scale pattern is present, resembling the suit worn by the fictional superhero,

Black Panther A black panther is the Melanism, melanistic colour variant of the leopard (''Panthera pardus'') and the jaguar (''Panthera onca''). Black panthers of both species have excess black pigments, but their typical Rosette (zoology), rosettes are al ...

Species comparison

In comparison with other closely related species in the genus, the

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

of ''Cirrhilabrus wakanda'' differs from '' C. rubrisquamis'' by 0.6%, from '' C. blatteus'' by 1.9%, and from '' C. sanguineus'' by 1.5%. Small genetic differences between closely related fairy wrasses are not unusual. A later review found that the "''C. rubrisquamis''" used for comparison were from the population found to be a separate species, '' C. finifenmaa'', in 2022. Consequently, a detailed, direct comparison with true ''C. rubrisquamis'' is lacking, but their appearance is very similar and it is possible that ''C. wakanda'' is a

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

of ''C. rubrisquamis''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65591197 Fish described in 2019 Taxa named by Yi-Kai Tea Taxa named by Bart Shepherd Taxa named by Hudson T. Pinheiro Taxa named by Luiz A. Rocha Fish of Tanzania Labridae