Macropharyngodonbipartitus
,male
NEWS102
25
Macropharyngodonbipartitus
, female
Malesof theonly rarely imported
Pseudojuloides severnsi
.
all photos:FrankSchäfer
Lexicon
Wrasses
Paracheilinus:means“close to
Cheilinus”;Cheilinus is another
wrassegenus
filamentosus:means“with
filaments”
carpenteri:name inhonor ofDr.
Kent E.Carpenter of theOld
DominionUniversity
Macropharyngodon:means“with
largepharyngeal teeth”
bipartitus:means“divided into two
parts”
Pseudojuloides:means“false
Juloides”; Juloides is another genus
severnsi:name inhonor ofMike
Severns
Wetmorella:name inhonor ofDr.
AlexanderWetmore,at the time
Assistant Secretary,UnitedStates
NationalMuseum
nigropinnata:means“black-finned”
Novaculichthys:means“Novacula (-
like) fish”;Novacula is another
genus
macrolepidotus:means ”with large
scales”
Amphiprion:means“with serrations
onboth sides”, referring to the
serratedopercula.
takes a certain amount of time, so that it
really takes a lot of experience to identify
thespeciescorrectlyat somestagesof the
transformation. But the story of the
wrassesdoesn’t endwith this first change
of coloration. They are also capable of
changing sex! More precisely: females
have this capability.Fishes that start lifeas
females and end up asmales are termed
“protogynous
hermaphrodites”.
The
reverse situationalsoexists,namely fishes
that begin as males and change into
females.Theseareknownas“protandrous
hermaphrodites”; a well-known example
of protandrous hermaphroditism is the
clown- or anemonefishes of the genus
Amphiprion.
But back to the wrasses! Males that
develop from females are termed
“secondary males”, and once again they
look different to the juveniles, primary
males, and females – so we really can
justify speakingof a third sex.
But not all wrasses are subject to this
complex change of coloration. In some
species no sexual dichromatism is known
at all, and in others it is only slight. The
observation of wrasses in the aquarium
mayhelpanswermanyopenquestionson
this subject.
