Aluterus scriptus (Osbeck 1765)

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 : 326

Aluterus scriptus (Osbeck 1765) —Scrawled filefish ( Fig. 167 )

Status at New Ireland. First recorded from New Ireland as Aluterus venosus by Hollard (1855: 14–15, pl. 1, fig. 3), based on MNHN B.1970 (holotype of A. venosus ); see Beaunier et al. (2009: 287); a specimen photographed at Lissenung Island, Kavieng District by Dietmar Amon on 9 Sept. 2006, another at 12 m depth, by Dean Tully on 24 June 2013; a video of a specimen taken at Echuca Shoal, New Hanover, 15–34 m depth, St. KR158, in 2014 (identified by Barry C. Russell).

Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 1, 2.—General distribution: Circumglobal in tropical and subtropical oceans, in western Pacific south to northern New Zealand. Found in lagoon and seaward coral and rocky reefs, occasionally under floating objects; juveniles may travel with weed rafts in open ocean for a long time, 3–120 m depth. Marine.

Figures

FIGURE 167. Aluterus scriptus (Osbeck 1765), Lissenung Island, Kavieng District, 9 Sept. 2006 (underwater photograph: Dietmar Amon).