''Lethrinus atkinsoni'' is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

of emperor fish described by

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 ...

in 1910. It is commonly 30 to 35 cm long with a bluish-grey, yellowish, or tan in colour, and a white belly. This species is widespread throughout the west

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

. It is a reef-associated fish and is non-migratory. It is solitary or is found in small schools, and lives in seagrass beds and over the sandy bottoms feeding on

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is es ...

crustacean Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean gro ...

s, and other fishes. This fish is caught by humans for food, but less so than other species in the genus due to its small size.

Common names

Common names include the following, or variants thereof: * Atkinson's emperor * Pacific yellowtail emperor * Reticulated emperorftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/t0242e/T0242E07.pdf * Tamure * Tricky snapper * Tuamotu emperor * Yellow morwong * Yellowtailed emperor

Description

The upper sides of this species may be bluish-grey, yellowish, or tan in colour. The belly is white. There is sometimes an indistinct area of yellow on the caudal peduncle. The head is brown, has a moderately blunt and short snout, with reddish lips. The fins may be reddish, orange, or yellowish and are pale. The edges of the fins are commonly reddish. This fish grows to approximately 40 to 50 cm, but is commonly 30 to 35 cm in length. This species has been mistaken for ''

Lethrinus mahsena ''Lethrinus mahsena'', common names the sky emperor, mahsena emperor, and cutthroat emperor, is a species of emperor fish. It grows to 65 cm in length, but is commonly found at 35 to 45 cm. This fish may be yellow to greenish-blue or ...

'', however, they are different in numerous, consistent ways, including colour, the shape of the body, and in meristic counts.

Distribution

This species is widespread throughout the west

, 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 and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, New Caledonia, and Japan.

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' ...

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.

Diet

This species is known to eat

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

handline Handline fishing, or handlining, is a fishing technique where a single fishing line is held in the hands, rather than with a fishing rod like the usual angling. It is a type of angling, and is not to be confused with handfishing, which is catch ...

s, by

trawling Trawling is a 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 different spec ...

, 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 People * Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman * Michel Host ...

of many species of

parasite Parasitism is a Symbiosis, close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the Host (biology), host, causing it some harm, and is Adaptation, adapted structurally to this way of lif ...

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 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 have both male and female reprod ...

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 respiratory organ that many 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 respiration on land provided they ar ...

s. The gills also harbour unidentified gnathiid

isopod Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

larvae. The digestive tract harbours several species of digeneans, 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 (biology), 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, known as tapeworms. Their bodi ...

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

References

External links

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