''Scarus globiceps'', commonly known as the globehead, violet-lined, speckled or roundhead parrotfish, is a marine fish native to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where it lives in coral reefs. French naturalist

Achille Valenciennes Achille Valenciennes (9 August 1794 – 13 April 1865) was a French zoologist. Valenciennes was born in Paris, and studied under Georges Cuvier. His study of parasitic worms in humans made an important contribution to the study of parasitology. ...

described the globehead parrotfish in 1840. The species was the first parrotfish collected by

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

—from the waters around Tahiti and then from the Cocos Islands; the former was described as a new species and given the name ''Scarus lepidus'' by Leonard Jenyns, while the latter was confirmed as the current species. In 1900,

Henry Weed Fowler Henry Weed Fowler (March 23, 1878 – June 21, 1965) was an American zoologist born in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania. He studied at Stanford University under David Starr Jordan. He joined the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and worked as ...

described a specimen from Caroline Island as ''Scarus pronus'', which was later synonymised with this species. The globehead parrotfish can grow up to 45 cm (18 in) long and weigh up to 0.5 kg (1.1 lb). The adult male in terminal phase has a predominantly green body with its scales bordered with salmon pink. The tail fin is green with salmon-pink bands. It has a horizontal pink band bordered with green running from the snout through its eyes to the end of the opercle. It has 1 or 2 canine teeth on the upper and lower plates. Initial phase globehead parrotfish are grey-brown, their abdomens bearing three white bands. The range is from the

Society A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Socie ...

and

Line Islands The Line Islands, Teraina Islands or Equatorial Islands (in Gilbertese, ''Aono Raina'') are a chain of 11 atolls (with partly or fully enclosed lagoons) and coral islands (with a surrounding reef) in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawa ...

in the Pacific west to the

Ryukyu Islands The , also known as the or the , are a chain of Japanese islands that stretch southwest from Kyushu to Taiwan: the Ōsumi, Tokara, Amami, Okinawa, and Sakishima Islands (further divided into the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands), with Yonaguni ...

in the north, the

Great Barrier Reef The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...

in the south, and across the Indian Ocean to east Africa. It is found more commonly on outer reefs but can also inhabit lagoons, generally to a depth of around and occasionally down to . ''Scarus globiceps'' is harvested for food in

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q947668 Glob Fish of the Pacific Ocean Fish of Oceania Least concern biota of Oceania Taxa named by Achille Valenciennes Fish described in 1840