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Genicanthus spinus

Pitcairn Angelfish

Multimedia & Additional Resources

Type	Description	Download
Image:	Male and Female (Pitcairn)	40KB

General Information

COMMON NAMES: Pitcairn Angelfish; German Pitcairn-Lyrakaiserfisch; French Poisson-ange Lyre de Pitcairn

GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: NATIVE Southeast Polynesia (Cooks - Australs - Pitcairn)

COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Native, Endemic of se.Polynesia; PLUS: RR (Sims, photo.) Outer reef-slope, 57 metr; Marine, near-shore, outer reef-slope; 25-100m, steep slopes, to several metres off substrate

KEY FEATURES: To 35cm SL., sexually dimorphic. Deep bodied (2.5x in SL), short snout, long spine on gill cover, high doesal fin and long lunate tail. FEMALE uniformly silver-grey. MALE grey with evenly spaced black bars on upper half of body; a yellow stripe within the Dorsal and Anal Fins, and on upper and lower edges of the tail; forehead with dark bars and lower face with dark spots.

SIMILAR SPECIES: See under Watanabe's Angelfish (Genicanthus watanabei).

Cook Islands Distribution

View Distribution Map

Southern Group: Present Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
P

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW

Key to Symbols

blank	no data
-	absent	L	localised
X	extinct 'naturally'	W	widespread
XQi	quarantine intercepted	R	recent
XQe	eradicated	?	query preceding category
P	present	T?	taxonomic query
S	seasonal	nn	present, said to have no name
O	occasional	?1	present, name not investigated
++++	very common	?2	presence not verified, no name recorded
+++	common	N/A	absent, name not expected
++	uncommon
+	rare
Cook Islands islands: RR =Rarotonga, MG = Mangaia, AT =‘Ātiu, MK=Ma‘uke, MT=Miti‘āro, AK=Aitutaki, PL=Palmerston, PN=Penrhyn, MN=Manuae, TK=Takūtea, TN=Tongareva (TS=Tongaleva Spoken, TW=Tongareva Written, they say "el" but write "r"), MH=Manihiki, RK=Rakahanga, PK=Pukapuka, NS=Nassau, SW=Suwarrow. After a Polynesian name: ^=orthography query. Countries and other: FIJ=Fiji, WT=Wallis & Futuna, SAM=Samoa, TON=Tonga, NIU=Niue, CK=Cook Islands, CKM=Cook Islands Māori, FP=French Polynesia, AUS=Australs, SOC=Societies, TAH=Tahiti, TUA=Tuamotus, MQS=Marquesas, MNG=Mangareva, PIT=Pitcain group, EAS=Easter Island, HAW=Hawai‘i, NZ=New Zealand, NZM=New Zealand Māori

Scientific Taxonomy

Genicanthus spinus Randall, 1975
TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; CHORDATA; GNATHOSTOMATA (Jawed Vertebrates); PISCES; OSTEICHTHYES; Perciformes; Percoidei; Percoidea; POMACANTHIDAE

Vouchers & References

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: Photo male 57m depth Nikao ID N.Sims, confirmed Randall (Sims88).

References:
plate 71-09 Lieske & Myers (1996) Coral Reef Fishes

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zupM06a, zD02

Web Resources

Citation Information

McCormack, Gerald (2007) Cook Islands Biodiversity Database, Version 2007.2. Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust, Rarotonga. Online at http://cookislands.bishopmuseum.org.
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