''Lethrinus atkinsoni'', the Pacific yellowtail emperor,, Atkinson's emperor, reticulated emperor, tricky snapper, Tuamotu emperor, yellow morwong or yellow-tailed emperor is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fish or actinopterygians, is a class of bony fish that comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. They are so called because of their lightly built fins made of webbings of sk ...

belonging to the

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Lethrinidae Lethrinidae are a family of ray-finned fishes belonging to the order Spariformes commonly known as emperors, emperor breams, and pigface breams. These fish are found in tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and ''Lethrinus atlanticus ...

, the emperor breams and emperors. This fish is found in the Western Pacific Ocean.

Taxonomy

''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' was first formally described in 1910 by the American

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Alvin Seale Alvin Seale (July 8, 1871 – July 28, 1958) was a naturalist known for his aquarium design and as an ichthyologist. Early life Alvin Seale was born on July 8, 1871, in Fairmount, Indiana, to a family of Quakers. In 1892, he attended Stanford Un ...

with its type locality given as Balabac Island in the Philippines. Some authors place the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

'' Lethrinus'' in the monotypic

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end botanical subfamily names with "-oideae", and zo ...

Lethrininae, with all the other genera of Lethrinidae placed in the Monotaxinae, however, the 5th edition of ''

Fishes of the World ''Fishes of the World'' is a standard reference for the systematics of fishes. It was first written in 1976 by the American ichthyologist Joseph S. Nelson (1937–2011). Now in its fifth edition (2016), the work is a comprehensive overview of t ...

'' does not recognise the subfamilies traditionally accepted within the family Lethrinidae as valid. The family Lethrinidae is classified by the 5th edition of ''Fishes of the World'' as belonging to the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood ...

Spariformes Spariformes is an order of ray-finned fishes consisting of six families within the series Percomorpha. Taxonomy Spariformes was first used as a taxonomic term in 1860 by the Dutch physician, herpetologist and ichthyologist Pieter Bleeker. Trad ...

Etymology

''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' has a

patronym A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, ...

for its specific name, Seale did not say who he was honouring with the patronym nut it is thought likely to be the illustrator William Sackston Atkinson who prepared plates for Seale.

Description

''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' has a continuous dorsal fin which is supported by 10 apines and 9 fost rays while the

anal fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported o ...

is supported by 3 spines and 8 soft rays. It has a moderately deep body that has a

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 ...

of between 2.3 and 2,6 times its depth. The dorsal profile of the head is clearly convex near the eyes and the snout is short and blunt with a steep, straight profile. This species has a yellow tail and a yellow mark over the eye, it may show a wide yellow longitudinal stripe running along the midflank. The extent of yellow on the

caudal peduncle Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the back bone and are supported only ...

and how much it extends onto the body is variable. This species has a maximum published

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

of , although is more typical.

Distribution

This species is widespread throughout the west

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, and is known to live in the waters of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Habitat

''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' is a reef-associated fish, and is non-migratory. It lives in seagrass beds and over the sandy bottoms of

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

s and the outer slopes of coral reefs. It is found in depths of between 0 and 30 metres, but is most commonly found between 2 and 8 metres.

Biology

''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' has been found to be a protogynous hermaphrodite, the males develop from mature females, in some populations and in other populations they are gonochoristic, i.e separate sexes. A clearly defined spawning season was not found off

Saipan Saipan () is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, an unincorporated Territories of the United States, territory of the United States in the western Pacific Ocean. According to 2020 estimates by the United States Cens ...

, although elsewhere spawning peaks in the Spring. 50% of the fish with fork lengths between are sexually mature. This species is known to eat

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms that drift in Hydrosphere, water (or atmosphere, air) but are unable to actively propel themselves against ocean current, currents (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are ca ...

mollusk Mollusca is a phylum of protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum after Arthropoda. The ...

crustacean Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquatic arthrop ...

s, and other fishes It may be solitary or found in schools.

Human uses

''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' is caught as a subsistence fish, commercially, as well as by recreation fishers. Although considered desirable as food, other species in the genus are preferred due to its smaller size. It is caught mainly using handlines, by

trawling Trawling is an industrial method of fishing that involves pulling a fishing net through the water behind one or more boats. The net used for trawling is called a trawl. This principle requires netting bags which are towed through water to catch di ...

, and is captured in such nets as the shore seine and

gillnet Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is ...

. It is marketed mostly fresh, not frozen.

Parasites

As with most fish, ''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' is the

host A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places * Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County * Host Island, in the Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica People * ...

of many species of

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives (at least some of the time) on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted str ...

s.Justine, J.-L., Beveridge, I., Boxshall, G. A., Bray, R. A., Moravec, F. & Whittington, I. D. 2010: An annotated list of fish parasites (Copepoda, Monogenea, Digenea, Cestoda and Nematoda) collected from Emperors and Emperor Bream (Lethrinidae) in New Caledonia further highlights parasite biodiversity estimates on coral reef fish. Zootaxa, 2691, 1-40
Open-Access PDF
/ref> The diplectanid

monogenea Monogeneans, members of the class Monogenea, are a group of ectoparasitic flatworms commonly found on the skin, gills, or fins of fish. They have a direct lifecycle and do not require an intermediate host. Adults are hermaphrodites, meaning they ...

n ''Calydiscoides rohdei'' Justine, J.-L. 2007: Species of ''Calydiscoides'' Young, 1969 (Monogenea: Diplectanidae) from lethrinid fishes, with the redescription of all of the type-specimens and the description of ''C. euzeti'' n. sp. from ''Lethrinus rubrioperculatus'' and ''L. xanthochilus'' off New Caledonia. ''Systematic Parasitology'', 67, 187-209. is parasitic on the

gill A gill () is a respiration organ, respiratory organ that many aquatic ecosystem, aquatic organisms use to extract dissolved oxygen from water and to excrete carbon dioxide. The gills of some species, such as hermit crabs, have adapted to allow r ...

s. The gills also harbour unidentified gnathiid

isopod Isopoda is an Order (biology), order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both Aquatic animal, aquatic species and Terrestrial animal, terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons ...

larvae. The digestive tract harbours several species of

digenea Digenea (Gr. ''Dis'' – double, ''Genos'' – race) is a class of trematodes in the Platyhelminthes phylum, consisting of parasitic flatworms (known as ''flukes'') with a syncytial tegument and, usually, two suckers, one ventral and one or ...

ns, including the opecoelids ''Macvicaria macassarensis'' and ''Neolebouria'' sp. and the acanthocolpid ''Zoogonus pagrosomi'' and unidentified tetraphyllid cestodes. The abdominal cavity harbours larvae of the tetrarynch

cestode Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, commonly known as tapeworms. Their bodies co ...

''Pseudogilquinia pillersi''.Beveridge, I., Chauvet, C. & Justine, J.-L. 2007: Redescription of ''Pseudogilquinia pillersi'' (Southwell, 1929) (Cestoda, Trypanorhyncha) from serranid and lethrinid fishes from New Caledonia and Australia. Acta Parasitologica, 52, 213-218. In

, where its parasites were studied, ''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' has a total of six species of

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1930942 atkinsoni Fish described in 1910