Dusky Wrasse, Halichoeres marginatus Rüppell 1835


Other Names: Dusky-wrasse, Speckled Rainbowfish, Splendid Rainbow Wrasse

A male Dusky Wrasse, Halichoeres marginatus, on Flynn Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland. Source: Andrew J. Green / Reef Life Survey. License: CC By Attribution

Summary:
Males are greenish to brownish with narrow blue stripes or rows of blue spots along the sides, a broad yellow margin and blue submarginal spots on the pectoral fin, and a greenish crescent-shaped band on the tail base.
Females are brown with darker narrow stripes along the sides, a black ocellus on the middle of the dorsal fin and a greenish margin on the caudal fin. Juveniles are blackish to dark brown with narrow white stripes along the sides, a bluish to black ocellus on the middle of the dorsal fin, and white blotches on the back.

Cite this page as:
Bray, D.J. 2018, Halichoeres marginatus in Fishes of Australia, accessed 19 Mar 2024, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/2291

Dusky Wrasse, Halichoeres marginatus Rüppell 1835

More Info


Distribution

Shark Bay (juveniles further south) to the Kimberley and offshore reefs of north Western Australia, Ashmore and Cartier reefs, Timor Sea, and the Great Barrier Reef and reefs in the Coral Sea, Queensland, with juveniles to Sydney, New South Wales; also  Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island, Indian Ocean, and Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea.
Elsewhere, the species is widespread in the Indo-west-central Pacific from the Red Sea and east Africa to Hawaii and the Tuamoto Islands, including southern Japan and the Austral Islands.

Remarks

Kuiter (2010) considers that the Dusky wrasse Halichoeres marginatus (as Platyglossus marginatus) is restricted to the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean species is P. lamarii, also suggesting that the Pacific populations are P. annularis. Although the molecular study of Barber and Bellwood (2005) showed that there is an Indian Ocean clade and a Pacific Ocean clade, they did not include samples from the Red Sea.

Species Citation

Halichoeres marginatus Rüppell, 1835, Fische des Rothen Meeres 1: 16. Type locality: Massawa, Red Sea.

Author

Bray, D.J. 2018

Resources

Australian Faunal Directory

Dusky Wrasse, Halichoeres marginatus Rüppell 1835

References


Allen, G.R. 1993. Fishes of Ashmore Reef and Cartier Island. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 44: 67-91 

Allen, G.R. 1997. Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-east Asia. Perth : Western Australian Museum 292 pp. 106 pls. 

Allen, G.R. 2000. Fishes of the Montebello Islands. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 59: 47-57 

Allen, G.R. 2009. Field Guide to Marine Fishes of Tropical Australia and South-East Asia. Welshpool : Western Australian Museum Edn. 4, pp. 287.

Allen, G.R. & Erdmann, M.V. 2012. Reef fishes of the East Indies. Perth : Tropical Reef Research 3 vols, 1260 pp.


Allen, G.R. & Russell, B.C. 1986. Part VII Fishes. pp. 79-103 in Berry, P.F. (ed.) Faunal Surveys of the Rowley Shoals, Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef, northwestern Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 25: 1-106

Allen, G.R. & Smith-Vaniz, W.F. 1994. Fishes of Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Atoll Research Bulletin 412: 1-21.

Allen, G.R., Steene, R.C. & Orchard, M. 2007. Fishes of Christmas Island.Christmas Island : Christmas Island Natural History Association 2 edn, 284 pp.

Allen, G.R. & Swainston, R. 1988. The Marine Fishes of North-Western Australia. A field guide for anglers and divers. Perth, WA : Western Australian Museum vi 201 pp., 70 pls.

Barber, P.H. & Bellwood, D.R. 2005. Biodiversity hotspots: Evolutionary origins of biodiversity in wrasses (Halichoeres) in the Indo-Pacific and New World Tropics. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35: 235-253.

Choat, J.H. 2010. Halichoeres marginatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T187382A8519431. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-4.RLTS.T187382A8519431.en. Downloaded on 21 June 2018.


Fulton, C.J. & Bellwood, D.R. 2002. Patterns of foraging in labrid fishes, Marine Ecology Progress Series 226: 135-142. 
Fulton, C.J. & Bellwood, D.R. 2002. Ontogenetic habitat use in labrid fishes: an ecomorphological perspective, Marine Ecology Progress Series 236: 255-262.

Fulton, C.J., Bellwood, D.R. &  Wainwright, P.C. 2001. The relationship between swimming ability and habitat use in wrasses. Marine Biology 139: 25-33. 

Green, A.L. 1996. Spatial, temporal and ontogenetic patterns of habitat use by coral reef fishes (Family Labridae), Marine Ecology Progress Series 133: 1-11.

Green, A.L. 1996. Spatial, temporal and ontogenetic patterns of habitat use by coral reef fishes (Family Labridae), Marine Ecology Progress Series 133: 1-11. 

Hobbs, J-P.A., Newman, S.J., Mitsopoulos, G.E.A., Travers, M.J., Skepper, C.L., Gilligan, J.J., Allen, G.R., Choat, H.J. & Ayling, A.M. 2014. Checklist and new records of Christmas Island fishes: the influence of isolation, biogeography and habitat availability on species abundance and community composition. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology Supplement 30: 184–202

Hutchins, J.B. 1990. Fish survey of South Passage, Shark Bay, Western Australia. pp. 263-278 in Berry, P.F., Bradshaw, S.D. & Wilson, B.R. (eds). Research in Shark Bay: Report of the France-Australe Bicentenary Expedition Committee. Perth : Western Australian Museum. 


Hutchins, J.B. 2001. Biodiversity of shallow reef fish assemblages in Western Australia using a rapid censusing technique. Records of the Western Australian Museum 20: 247-270.

Hutchins, J.B. 2003. Checklist of marine fishes of the Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. pp. 453-478 in Wells, F.E., Walker, D.I., & Jones, D.S. (eds). Proceedings of the Eleventh International Marine Biological Workshop: The Marine Flora and Fauna of Dampier, Western Australia. Perth : Western Australian Museum.


Hutchins, J.B. & Swainston, R. 1986. Sea Fishes of Southern Australia. Complete field guide for anglers and divers. Perth : Swainston Publishing 180 pp.

Johnson, J.W. 1999. Annotated checklist of the fishes of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 43(2): 709-762.


Johnson, J.W. 2010. Fishes of the Moreton Bay Marine Park and adjacent continental shelf waters, Queensland, Australia. pp. 299-353 in Davie, P.J.F. & Phillips, J.A. Proceedings of the Thirteenth International Marine Biological Workshop, The Marine Fauna and Flora of Moreton Bay. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 54(3)

Johnson, J.W. & Gill, A.C. 2005. Reef and shore fishes of Sweers Island, Gulf of Carpentaria. Gulf of Carpentaria Scientific Study Report. Geography Monograph Series. Brisbane: Royal Geographic Society of Queensland. pp. 239-260

Kramer, M.J., O. Bellwood and D.R. Bellwood (2016). Foraging and microhabitat use by crustacean-feeding wrasses on coral reefs. Marine Ecology Progress Series 548: 277-282.


Kuiter, R.H. 1993. Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia. Bathurst : Crawford House Press 437 pp.

Kuiter, R.H. 1996. Guide to Sea Fishes of Australia. A comprehensive reference for divers and fishermen. Sydney, NSW, Australia : New Holland Publishers xvii, 434 pp.

Kuiter, R.H. 2002. Fairy & Rainbow Wrasses and their Relatives. Chorleywood, U.K. : TMC Publishing 207 pp.


Kuiter, R.H. 2010. Labridae fishes: wrasses. Seaford, Victoria, Australia : Aquatic Photographics pp. 398. 

Moore, G. & Morrison, S. 2009. Fishes of three North West Shelf atolls off Western Australia: Mermaid (Rowley Shoals), Scott and Seringapatam Reefs. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 77: 221-255 

Moore, G.I., Morrison, S.M., Hutchins, B.J., Allen, G.R. & Sampey, A. 2014. Kimberley marine biota. Historical data: fishes. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement 84: 161-206

Oxley, W.G., Ayling, A.M., Cheal, A.J. & Thompson, A.A. 2003. Marine surveys undertaken in the Coringa-Herald National Nature Reserve, March-April 2003. Townsville : Australian Institute of Marine Science 59 pp. 

Oxley, W.G., Emslie, M., Muir, P. & Thompson, A.A. 2004. Marine surveys undertaken in the Lihou Reef National Nature Reserve, March 2004. Townsville : Australian Institute of Marine Science i-vii, 1-67 pp.

Randall, J.E. 1986. Family No. 220: Labridae. pp. 683-706 in Smith, M.M. & Heemstra, P.C. (eds). Smith's Sea Fishes. Johannesburg : Macmillan South Africa xx + 1047 pp. 144 pls.

Randall, J.E. 2005. Reef and shore fishes of the South Pacific. New Caledonia to Tahiti and the Pitcairn Islands. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press 707 pp.

Randall, J.E., Allen, G.R. & Steene, R. 1997. Fishes of the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Bathurst : Crawford House Press 557 pp. figs.

Rüppell, W.P.E. 1835. Neue Wirbelthiere zu der Fauna von Abyssinien gehörig. Fische des Rothen Meeres. Frankfurt Vol. 1, pp. 1–28, pls 1–7. See ref at BHL


Russell, B.C. 1983. Annotated checklist of the coral reef fishes in the Capricorn-Bunker group, Great Barrier Reef, Australia. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. Special Publication Series 1: 1-184 figs 1-2

Shibuno, T., Gushima, K. &  Kakuda, S. 1993. Female spawning migrations of the protogynous wrasse, Halichoeres marginatus. Japanese Journal of Ichthyology 39(4): 357-362.

Wainwright, P.C., Bellwood, D.R., Westneat, M.W., Grubich, J.R. & Hoey, A.S. 2004. A functional morphospace for the skull of labrid fishes: patterns of diversity in a complex biomechanical system, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society: 82: 1-25

Westneat, M.W. 2001. Labridae. pp. 3381-3467 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, T.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 6 pp. 3381-4218.

Quick Facts


CAAB Code:37384114

Biology:Hermaphrodite

Conservation:IUCN Least Concern

Depth:1-30 m

Fishing:Aquarium fish

Habitat:Reef associated

Max Size:18 cm TL

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Species Maps

CAAB distribution map