Thalassoma newtoni ( Osorio , 1891)

Peter Wirtz, Carlos Eduardo L. Ferreira, Sergio R. Floeter, Ronald Fricke, Joao Luiz Gasparini, Tomio Iwamoto, Luiz Rocha, Claudio L. S. Sampaio & Ulrich K. Schliewen, 2007, Coastal Fishes of Sao Tome and Principe islands, Gulf of Guinea (Eastern Atlantic Ocean) - an update., Zootaxa 1523, pp. 1-48 : 14

Thalassoma newtoni ( Osorio, 1891)

SMNS 23066 (1 specimen) São Tomé City; SMNS 23131 (3 specimens) Rolas Island; SMNS 24878 (20 specimens) Rolas Island. UFES 172 (12 specimens) Praia Quinze, near Lagoa Azul, São Tomé. For a long time, T. newtoni was treated as a junior synonym of T. pavo (Linnaeus, 1758) . Afonso et al. (1999) also used the name T. pavo but noted that the color pattern of animals from São Tomé island was distinctly different (Figure 14). In a genetic comparison of the Atlantic species of the genus Thalassoma, Costagliola et al. (2004) noted a large genetic divergence between specimens from São Tomé and Mediterranean specimens of T. pavo ; furthermore, the species T. ascensionis and T. sanctaehelenae were more closely related to animals from São Tomé than these were to T. pavo . Thus, T. newtoni appears to be a valid species but a morphological comparison with T. pavo is still outstanding. Juveniles of this species were frequently observed cleaning other fish.