Bodianus bimaculatus Allen, 1973

Bogorodsky, Sergey V., Randall, John E. & Golani, Daniel, 2011, Four new records of shore fishes for the Red Sea, with notes on Parupeneus heptacanthus and Diodon liturosus, Zootaxa 3057, pp. 49-60 : 53-54

Bodianus bimaculatus Allen, 1973

Figures 4 , 5

Bodianus bimaculatus Allen, 1973: 386 , fig. 1 (Bairakaseru Island, Palau).

Diagnosis. Dorsal-fin rays XII,8–10; anal-fin rays III,12; pectoral-fin rays 16; lateral-line scales 30 or 31; predorsal scales 7–10, not reaching anterior to interorbital; gill rakers 14-16; body moderately elongate, the depth 3.6-4.0 in SL; snout short, 3.7–4.2 in head length; eye large, slightly larger than snout in juveniles, smaller in adults; caudal fin rounded; pelvic fins short, not reaching anus; adults yellow on body dorsal to a narrow red stripe from eye to base of caudal fin, pink below with indistinct narrow yellow bars; an irregular, ocellated black spot in adults posteriorly on opercle over red stripe; a pupil-size dark brown spot on base of caudal fin at end of red stripe (relatively larger and rimmed with pale blue in young). Largest specimen, 7.0 cm SL.

Distribution. Reported from Japan, Palau, New Caledonia, Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Mauritius, and Madagascar.

Remarks. The second author observed one individual of this species at 28 m while ascending from a deep dive off Jeddah in 1981, with no bottom time remaining to collect the fish. He returned to the same area the next day, but failed to find the species. The present Red Sea record is based on the underwater photograph of a subadult ( Fig. 4 ) taken off Jeddah by Richard Field. Figure 5 provides a photograph of an adult taken in Mauritius. The color pattern of Figure 4 is approximately intermediate to that of a juvenile from Japan illustrated by Gomon (2006) as Plate I C and the initial-phase adult from Bali of his Plate I D. An underwater photo of one from the Maldive Islands illustrated in color by Randall & Anderson (1993, pl. 5, fig. H) provides a link between the subadult of Figure 4 and the initial-phase adult in Gomon (2006).

Bodianus bimaculatus is known from depths of 20 to more than 60 m, generally deeper than 30 m. It is the smallest species of the genus, with females maturing at 4 cm SL ( Gomon, 2006).

Figures

FIGURE 4. Bodianus bimaculatus, subadult, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (R. Field).

FIGURE 5. Bodianus bimaculatus, Mauritius (J. E. Randall).