Lined butterflyfish
species of fish
The lined butterflyfish (Chaetodon lineolatus) is a species of marine ray-finned fish. a butterflyfish belonging to the family Chaetodontidae, one of the largest species in the genus Chaetodon. It has a wide range from the Red Sea to South Africa and as far east as southern Japan and Hawaii.
Taxonomy
It belongs to the large subgenus Rabdophorus, which might warrant recognition as a distinct genus. In this group, it is sister to a clade composed of the spot-naped butterflyfish (C. oxycephalus), the peculiar black-wedged butterflyfish (C. falcula), and the Pacific double-saddle butterflyfish or "false falcula" (C. ulietensis). These four differ wildly in shape, but all have bluish vertical lines on a white body with yellow behind, and black on back and caudal peduncle in addition to the typical eyestripe of Chaetodon. The blue-cheeked butterflyfish (C. semilarvatus) is in turn sister to this entire clade, but it also has the tell-tale blue vertical lines.
Description
Lined butterflyfish may grow up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long, which among Chaetodon is matched only by the saddle butterflyfish (C. ephippium), making them about as big as dinner plates. They are white in color, with thin black vertical bars which join a thick black band at the base of the tail and dorsal fin. The tail, dorsal, and anal fins are yellow.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1147338. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lined butterflyfish” 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.