Thalassoma amblycephalum (Bleeker 1856)

Andréfouët, Serge, Chen, Wei-Jen, Kinch, Jeff, Mana, Ralph, Russell, Barry C., Tully, Dean & White, William T., 2019, Checklist of the marine and estuarine fishes of New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, western Pacific Ocean, with 810 new records, Zootaxa 4588 (1), pp. 1-360 : 238

Thalassoma amblycephalum (Bleeker 1856) —Bluntheaded wrasse

Status at New Ireland. New record, based on photograph taken on 1 June 2013 during ACIAR Aquarium Survey in Kavieng District; other specimens photographed at St. KVG 17 on the Bismarck Sea side of northern Kavieng District by Serge Andréfouët on 18 Aug. 2014; a video of a specimen taken at Nubilus Island , off eastern New Hanover , 3–25 m depth, St. KR 90, in 2014 (identified by Barry C. Russell).

Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 1, 2.—General distribution: Transkei ( South Africa) and East Africa, Madagascar and Mascarenes east to Line, Marquesas and Tuamotu islands, north to southern Japan and Ogasawara Islands, south to Lord Howe Island, northern New Zealand and Tonga. Found in aggregations over shallow lagoon and seaward coral and rocky reefs and on reef flats, 0–15 m depth. Marine.