Teardrop butterflyfish


The teardrop butterflyfish is a species of butterflyfish.

Distribution

The fish is native to the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean.
It is found from Maritime Southeast Asia east to the Hawaiian Islands, Marquesan Islands, and Ducie Island; north to southern Japan; south to the Lord Howe and Rapa islands; and throughout Micronesia.

Taxonomy

In the Indian Ocean it is replaced by the yellow teardrop butterflyfish, now a separate species but previously considered a subspecies of Chaetodon unimaculatus.
In its subgenus Lepidochaetodon it is sometimes considered a separate genus. It is only distantly related to other Chaetodon species such as the sunburst butterflyfish and the Tahiti butterflyfish.

Footnotes