''Abalistes stellatus'', the starry triggerfish or flat-tailed triggerfish, is a species 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 ...

Balistidae, the triggerfishes. This triggerfish has a wide

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

distribution.

Taxonomy

''Abalistes stellatus'' was first formally described in 1798 by an anonymous author, the description being published in

Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung The ''Allgemeine Literatur-Zeitung'' was a literary journal founded in Jena in 1785 and discontinued in Halle in 1849. It was launched with the aim of reviewing and critically accompanying the entire current literary production of the time. It bec ...

and is the author thought to be

Bernard Germain de Lacépède Bernard-Germain-Étienne de La Ville-sur-Illon, comte de Lacépède or La Cépède (; 26 December 17566 October 1825) was a French natural history, naturalist and an active freemason. He is known for his contribution to the Comte de Buffon's g ...

based on a description he found in a manuscript written by

Philibert Commerson Philibert Commerson (; 18 November 1727 – 14 March 1773), sometimes spelled Commerçon by contemporaries, was a French naturalist, best known for accompanying Louis Antoine de Bougainville on his voyage of circumnavigation in 1766–1769. ...

. The type locality was given as

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. In 1839

William Swainson William Swainson Fellow of the Linnean Society, FLS, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (8 October 1789 – 6 December 1855), was an English ornithologist, Malacology, malacologist, Conchology, conchologist, entomologist and artist. Life Swains ...

created a subgenus of '' Capriscus'' he called ''Leiurus'' but he had already preoccupied this name with a subgenus of sticklebacks and in 1906

David Starr Jordan David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Universi ...

and

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 ...

replaced ''Leiurus'' with ''Abalistes'', making ''Capriscus (Leiurus) macropthalmus'' as its

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

by replacement. This species belongs to the family Blaistidae, which is included in the

suborder Order () is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and recognized ...

Balistoidei Balistoidei, or Sclerodermi, is a suborder of Actinopterygii, ray-finned fishes belonging to the Order (biology), order Tetraodontiformes, the order which includes the pufferfishes, ocean sunfishes, boxfishes and related fishes. This suborder com ...

Etymology

''Abalistes stellatus'' is the type species of the genus ''Abalistes'', a name which prefixes ''a-'', meaning "not", with ''Balistes'', the genus that ''A. stellaris'', a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means precisely or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are a ...

of ''A. stellatus'', was considered to belong to. The

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 ...

, ''stellatus'', means "starry", a reference to the small white spots on the upper body.

Description

''Abalistes stellatus'' has 3 spines and between 25 and 27 soft rays in its

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates. Dorsal fins have evolved independently several times through convergent evolution adapting to marine environments, so the fins are not all homologous. They are found ...

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 ...

has 24 or 24 soft rays. There is an oblique groove in front of the eye and the scales to the rear of the gill slit are large. The depth of the body fits into the

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 ...

between 2 and 2.5 times. 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 ...

is flattened and is at least as wide as it is deep, as well as being narrow and tapering with a length much greater than its depth. The caudal fin is double emarginate and the two lobes lengthen as the fish grows. The large scales behind the gill slit and above the base of the

pectoral fin Fins are moving appendages protruding from the body of fish that interact with water to generate thrust and help the fish aquatic locomotion, swim. Apart from the tail or caudal fin, fish fins have no direct connection with the vertebral column ...

create a flexible tympanum. The scales towards the rear of the body are keeled, creating longitudinal ridges. The overall colour is greyish to greenish-brown fading to whitish ventrally, there are four large white blotches along the back, the last of these is located on the caudal peduncle and the body is marked with pale yellowish-brown spots and there may be a white streak on the middle of the upper side. 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 and habitat

''Abalistes stellatus'' has a wide distribution in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans. It occurs along the coast of eastern Africa from the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

Mossel Bay Mossel Bay () is a harbour town of about 170,000 people on the Garden Route of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province. Mossel Bay lies 400 kilometres east of the country's seat of parliament, Ca ...

in the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

, South Africa, across the Indian Ocean and into the Western Pacific Ocean as far east as Fiji, north as far as southern Japan and south to northern and eastern Australia. It is found at deptsh between in areas of sand, sponge, and seaweed areas over deep slopes. The juveniles frequently inhabit sheltered coastal bays and estuaries where there are open areas scattered with outcrops of rubble and other debris.

Biology

''Abalistes setllatus'' feeds on

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 the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

invertebrates and its diet includes crabs, molluscs and sea urchins. The starry triggerfish is typically solitary but the males and females come together to form pairs for breeding. The eggs are laid on the substrate and are guarded by the female.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q2327953, from2=Q1903278 stellatus Fish described in 1798