The brownspotted wrasse (''Notolabrus parilus''), also known as the blue-spotted parrotfish, brown-spotted parrotfish and orangespotted wrasse, is a species of marine
ray-finned fish from the
family Labridae, the
wrasses. It is found in the Indian Ocean off the western and southern coasts of Australia.
Description
The brownspotted wrasse is a relatively large species of wrasse with specimens measuring up to in
standard length
Fish measurement is the measuring of individual fish and various parts of their anatomies. These data are used in many areas of ichthyology, including taxonomy and fisheries biology.
Overall length
* Standard length (SL) is the length of a fish m ...
.
The males of this specie have a dark brown or greyish brown background colour, with an interrupted horizontal white band
running the length of the body. They also have gold or brown markings on their scales. The females and juveniles are a lighter shade of brown than the males or may be greenish, with white blotches on scales, and grey and brown barring across body.
Distribution
The brownspotted wrasse is distributed from
Shark Bay
Shark Bay (Malgana: ''Gathaagudu'', "two waters") is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/shark-bay area is located approximately north of Perth, on the ...
,
Western Australia around the southern coastline of Australia as far as southern
Victoria. They are most numerous off Western Australia, especially off the south western coast of the state, they are less abundant in
South Australia and Victoria is the edge of their range where they are very rare.
[
]
Habitat and biology
The brownspotted wrasse is found in the vicinity of rocky reefs with seaweeds, it prefers sheltered, moderately exposed and slightly more exposed areas. It occurs at depths of but has been recorded at greater depths. The juveniles are sometimes recorded in beds of sea grass.[ This species is a carnivore which feeds on a variety of ]benthic
The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...
invertebrates found in areas with a sand substrate, among sea grass and seaweeds. They prey upon gastropod
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...
s, amphipod
Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descr ...
s, 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 ...
s, prawns, crabs and echinoids.[ The change occurs when the fish attains a standard length of . Spawning takes place the late austral winter to early spring. The eggs are laid among seagrass and reef habitats with the eggs and larvae being pelagic.][
]
Species description and etymology
''Notolabrus parilu''s was first formally described in 1850 as ''Tautoga parila'' by Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
naturalist John Richardson (1787-1865) with the type locality
Type locality may refer to:
* Type locality (biology)
* Type locality (geology)
See also
* Local (disambiguation)
* Locality (disambiguation)
{{disambiguation ...
given as King George Sound in Western Australia.specific name Specific name may refer to:
* in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database
In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules:
* Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
''parila'' is the name given to this species by the aboriginal
Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to:
*Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology
* Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area
*One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...
inhabitants of Port George Sound area.[
]
References
{{taxonbar, from= Q2229335
brownspotted wrasse
Marine fish of Southern Australia
Marine fish of Western Australia
brownspotted wrasse