Philippine Butterflyfish, Chaetodon adiergastos Seale 1910

Other Names: Bantayan Butterflyfish, Eye-patch Butterflyfish, Panda Butterflyfish

A Philippine Butterflyfish, Chaetodon adiergastos, at Tulamben, Bali, Indonesia. Source: Ian V. Shaw / Reef Life Survey. License: CC by Attribution

Summary:

A whitish butterflyfish with narrow diagonal brownish stripes along the side, yellow dorsal, caudal and anal fins with brown margins, yellow pelvic fins, a large black oval patch surrounding the eye, and a black spot on the forehead.

Cite this page as:

Bray, D.J. 2023, Chaetodon adiergastos in Fishes of Australia, accessed 10 Jul 2025, https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/2372

Philippine Butterflyfish, Chaetodon adiergastos Seale 1910

More Info

Distribution	Known in Australia from Shark Bay, Western Australia, including offshore reefs, and Ashmore Reef in the Timor Sea, to New Year Island, Northern Territory; also Christmas Island in the eastern Indian Ocean. Elsewhere the species occurs in the tropical Western Pacific.
Feeding	Feed on corals, crabs, polychaete worms, and other invertebrates.
Etymology	The specific name is from the Greek adiergastos (= unfinished), presumably in reference to the relationship with Chaetodon flavirostris, from which it differs in the "lack [of] the wide, dusky band from dorsal to anal which characterizes that species”.
Species Citation	Chaetodon adiergastos Seale, 1910, Philippine J. Sci. 5(2): 116. Type locality: Bantayan Island, Philippines
Author	Bray, D.J. 2023
Resources	Atlas of Living Australia Australian Faunal Directory Catalog of Fishes

Philippine Butterflyfish, Chaetodon adiergastos Seale 1910

References

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

Allen, G.R., Steene, R. & Allen, M. 1998. A Guide to Angelfishes & Butterflyfishes. Cairns : Odyssey Publishing/Tropical Reef Research 250 pp. figs.

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

Burgess, W.E. 1978. Butterflyfishes of the world. A monograph of the Family Chaetodontidae. T.F.H. Publications, Neptune City, New Jersey.

Findley, J.S. & M.T. Findley. 2001. Global, regional, and local patterns in species richness and abundance of butterflyfishes. Ecological Monographs. 7(1): 69-91.

Hobbs, J.-P.A., Frisch, A.J. Hender, J. & Gilligan, J.J. 2007. New records of angelfishes (Pomacanthidae) and butterflyfishes (Chaetodontidae) from Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) islands, Indian Ocean. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 90: 107-109.

Hobbs, J.-P., Newman, S., Mitsopoulos, G., Travers, M., et al. 2014. Checklist and new records of Christmas Island fishes: the influence of isolation, biogeography and habitat availability on species abundance and community composition. The Raffles bulletin of Zoology. 30.

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

Kuiter, R.H. 1992. Tropical Reef-Fishes of the Western Pacific, Indonesia and Adjacent Waters. Jakarta : PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama 314 pp. pls

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. Butterflyfishes, Bannerfishes and their Relatives. Chorleywood, U.K. : TMC Publishing 208 pp.

Larson, H.K. & Williams, R.S. 1997. Darwin Harbour fishes: a survey and annotated checklist. pp. 339-380 in Hanley, H.R., Caswell, G., Megirian, D. & Larson, H.K. (eds). The Marine Flora and Fauna of Darwin Harbour, Northern Territory, Australia. Proceedings of the Sixth International Marine Biology Workshop. Darwin : Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory 466 pp.

Myers, R. & Pratchett, M. 2010. Chaetodon adiergastos. In: IUCN 2013. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 13 January 2014.

Pyle, R. 2001. Chaetodontidae, Pomacanthidae. pp. 3224-3286 in Carpenter, K.E. & Niem, V.H. (eds). The Living Marine Resources of the Western Central Pacific. FAO Species Identification Guide for Fisheries Purposes. Rome : FAO Vol. 5 2791-3379 pp.

Seale, A. 1910. Descriptions of four new species of fishes from Bantayan Island, Philippine Archipelago. Philippine Journal of Science 5(2): 115-118 figs 1-2

Steene, R.C. 1978. Butterfly and Angelfishes of the World. Australia. Sydney : A.H. & A.W. Reed Vol. 1 144 pp. 216 figs.