Halichoeres exornatus, (RICHARDSON)

Randall, John E. & Allen, Gerald R., 2010, Two New Labrid Fishes Of The Genus Halichoeres From The East Indies, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 58 (2), pp. 281-289 : 283

STATUS OF HALICHOERES EXORNATUS (RICHARDSON)

Richardson (1846: 258–259) described Julis exornatus from watercolour paintings by Chinese artists obtained by John Reeves, who resided in Canton, and from specimens from Hong Kong. Richardson described two colour varieties in detail from the paintings. Whitehead (1969) reproduced many of the paintings in black and white from the Reeves Collection of Chinese Fish Drawings in the Natural History Museum in London. We reproduce here, as Fig. 2 , the first of two paintings used by Richardson for his Julis exornatus , as copied from the original by Whitehead (Pl. 24 C). Comparison is provided with the first author’s photograph ( Fig. 3) of a male specimen of Halichoeres nigrescens from Singapore (BPBM 22058, 83 mm SL). Sadovy & Cornish (2000: 207) reported H. nigrescens in Hong Kong as “the most abundant wrasse in shallow areas of corals and boulders in sheltered and exposed shores.” We confirm the treatment by Parenti & Randall (2002) of Julis exornatus as a synonym of Halichoeres nigrescens .

Figures

Fig 2. Painting of Halichoeres exornatus Richardson (after Whitehead, 1969).