Waite's Barracuda, Sphyraena waitii Ogilby 1908

Other Names: New South Wales Barracuda, Waite's Sea-pike

Summary:

A green barracuda becoming silvery below, with a yellow soft dorsal and caudal fin, and broad blackish marginal band on the caudal fin.

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2025, Sphyraena waitii in Fishes of Australia, accessed 27 Jun 2025, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/Home/species/4907

Waite's Barracuda, Sphyraena waitii Ogilby 1908

More Info

Distribution	Swains Reef, Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, to Bass Strait, SE of Lakes Entrance, Victoria.
Similar Species	Green above, silvery below : soft dorsal and caudal yellow, the latter with a broad posterior blackish marginal band. [Named for Edgar E. Waite, author of many valuable papers on Australian biology]. Type in the Queensland Museum. Total length of type 250 millimeters. Coast of New South Wales. [Port Jackson District]. Some years ago "Waite (Kec. Austr. Mus., iii, 1900, p. 210) called attention to certain discrepancies between the description of Sphyrcena novce-hollandice in my work on the "Edible Fishes of New South Wales " and that of its original describer, and remarked that " it is possible that we may have a third species in New South Wales." This supposition is fully borne out by the specimen now before me, in which the positions of the spinous dorsal and ventral fins are very different , the form is much more robust, the eye larger, the pectoral much longer, etc.
Etymology	The species is "Named for Edgar R. Waite, author of many valuable papers on Australian Biology".
Species Citation	Sphyraena waitii Ogilby 1908, Annals of the Queensland Museum 9(1): 29. Type locality: Port Jackson, New South Wales.
Author	Bray, D.J. 2025
Resources	Atlas of Living Australia Australian Faunal Directory Catalog of Fishes

Waite's Barracuda, Sphyraena waitii Ogilby 1908

References

Ballen, G.A. 2019. Nomenclature of the Sphyraenidae (Teleostei: Carangaria): a synthesis of fossil- and extant-based classification systems. Zootaxa 4686(3): 397-408 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4686.3.5

Fricke, R., Kulbicki, M. & Wantiez, L. 2011. Checklist of the fishes of New Caledonia, and their distribution in the Southwest Pacific Ocean (Pisces). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Naturkunde A, Neue Serie 4:341-463.

Gomon, M.F. 2008. Families Sphyraenidae to Centrolophidae. pp. 774-800 in Gomon, M.F., Bray, D.J. & Kuiter, R.H. (eds). Fishes of Australia's Southern Coast. Sydney : Reed New Holland 928 pp.

Morishita, S. & Motomura, H. 2020. Sphyraena stellata, a new barracuda from the Indo-Pacific, with redescriptions of S. helleri Jenkins, 1901 and S. novaehollandiae Günther, 1860 (Perciformes: Sphyraenidae). Zootaxa 4772(3): 545-566. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4772.3.6

Ogilby, J.D. 1908. New or little known fishes in the Queensland Museum. Annals of the Queensland Museum 9(1): 3-41 See ref at BHL

Whitley, G.P. 1964. A survey of Australian Ichthyology. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 89(1): 11-127 (as Indosphyraena waitii)