Porae
species of fish
The porae (Nemadactylus douglasii), the grey morwong, blue morwong, butterfish, Douglas' morwong, Eastern blue morwong, great perch, queen snapper, rubberlip morwong or silver morwong, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, traditionally regarded as belonging to the family Cheilodactylidae, the members of which are commonly known as morwongs. It is found around south eastern Australia and the north eastern coast of the North Island of New Zealand at depths of about 10 to 100 metres, on sandy and rocky coasts.
Taxonomy
The porae was first formally described as Cheilodactylus douglasii 1875 by the Scottish-born New Zealand geologist, naturalist and surgeon James Hector with the type localities given as Ngunguru Bay, north of Whangārei and Bay of Islands, Auckland, New Zealand. The specific name honours Sir Robert Andrews Mackenzie Douglas, 3rd Baronet of Douglas of Glenbervie, a former officer in the British Army and New Zealand politician who provided Hector with “kind hospitality” on a “pleasant fishing excursion” at Ngunguru Bay during which he collected some "fine" new specimens. Genetic and morphological analyses strongly support the placement of Nemadactylus in the family Latridae, alongside almost all of the other species formerly classified in the Cheilodactylidae.
Description
The porae has a body which is compressed and moderately short and deep, its depth being around two fifths of its standard length, with a very thin caudal peduncle. It has a moderately sized head which has a shallow dorsal profile and there is a small over the eyes in adults. There are no bony protuberances on the snout or to the front of the moderately sized eyes. It has a small mouth, which does not extend as far as the eyes, with thick and fleshy lips. The teeth are small and pointed and arranged in a single row in each jaw and they are embedded in the lips.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2010151. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1875.
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This entry incorporates text from “Porae” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.